rt a live daily here, just to tell the whole
story; though the way he got out didn't do _me_ any particular credit."

* * * * *

For days the residents of Happy Rest used all available mental
stimulants to aid them in solving the mystery of the major and the
wonderful lady; but, as the mental stimulants aforesaid were all
spirituous, the results were more deplorable than satisfactory. But
when, a few days later, the couple took the stage for Rum Valley, the
enterprising Spidertracks took an outside passage, and at the end of the
route had his persistency rewarded by seeing, in the Bangup House, a
Sister of Charity tenderly embrace the major's fair charge, start at the
sight of the major, and then, after some whispering by the happy mother,
sullenly extend a hand, which the major grasped heartily, and over which
there dropped something which, though a drop of water, was not a
rain-drop. Then did Spidertracks return to the home of his adoption, and
lavish the stores of his memory; and for days his name was famous, and
his liquor was paid for by admiring auditors.

[Illustration]

TWO POWERFUL ARGUMENTS.

"Got him?"

"You bet!"

The questioner looked pleased, yet not as if his pleasure engendered any
mental excitement. The man who answered spoke in an ordinary, careless
tone, and with unmoved countenance, as if he were merely signifying the
employment of an additional workman, or the purchase of a desirable
rooster.

Yet the subject of the brief conversation repeated above was no other
than Bill Bowney, the most industrious and successful of the
horse-thieves and "road-agents" that honored the southern portion of
California with their presence.

Nor did Bowney restrict himself to the duty of redistributing the
property of other people. Perhaps he belonged to that class of political
economists which considers superfluous population an evil; perhaps he
was a religious enthusiast, and ardently longed that all mankind should
speedily see the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem.

Be his motives what they might, it is certain that when an unarmed man
met Bowney, entered into a discussion with him, and lived verbally to
report the same, he was looked upon with considerably more interest than
a newly-made Congressman or a ten-thousand-acre farmer was able to
inspire.

The two men whose conversation we have recorded studied the ears of
their own horses for several minutes, after w