any comfort. Will ought
to have married years ago. His life might have counted for something
then; but now it seems as if it had been wasted."

"Maybe you think my life's been wasted, too?"

"No, Mr. Palmer, you know I could never think that, after your kindness
to Will and me."

"Well, Will Cummins was more generous than I ever was," answered Palmer.
"Main trouble with Will was his temper, which was no better than mine.
Every bad man in these mountains knew that Will Cummins was ready to
treat him to his own medicine."

"Yes, I wish he hadn't said so much about defending yourself. I wish he
hadn't carried a pistol that day. He wouldn't have been so ready to
fight, perhaps."

"One thing certain," observed Palmer, "if he was going to carry a pistol
at all, he ought to have had it handy, not under his duster."

"Well, it was natural to think the danger past when they had got safely
away from the South Yuba. The robbers knew their man, and they played a
shrewd game."

"It's easy enough to win when you play with loaded dice. I get boiling
mad when I think of these low-down, worthless rascals who don't stop at
any meanness, ready to commit murder for fifteen cents. They ought to be
treated worse than rattlesnakes. But, as you said just now, all this
don't help Will Cummins. But Will is all right, John. You know that as
well as I do."

"I came up here to hear you say so. I've pretty near lost faith in God
and man, I reckon."

"I lost faith in man long ago," answered Palmer, smiling sardonically.
"If the fall of Adam and the curse of Cain are fables,--as they are, of
course,--they are just as true as AEsop's fables, for all that. They hit
off human nature. But man isn't all. I've never belonged to any church,
as I've often told you. But the longer I live the more I trust in
Providence. Will Cummins was a good man, and he's all right, I tell
you."

"I feel that way myself. But I know my feeling in the matter don't alter
the facts any. How do you figure it out?"

"Well, my creed's about this: in spite of all the wickedness, this is a
beautiful old world. How gloriously the stars shine down every night
upon these mountains! Or, take Bruce and Sammy here"--and the old man
caressed his pets--"why, they love me to distraction. And I love both
the scamps, I certainly do. But what is that to your affection for your
partner, John Keeler? It is a good old world, I say. Then the Power
that's in it and back of it, 'in whom