stummicks out of shape. We finally reached an amicable settlement by
me getting him agin a log where I could brand him with the coffee-pot.

"Right there we drawed up a protoplasm, by the terms of which he was
to laugh anyways twice at meal-times.

"He told me that he reckoned he was locoed, and always had been since
a youngster, when the Injuns run in on them down at Frisbee, the time
of the big 'killing.' Kink saw his mother and father both murdered,
and other things, too, which was impressive, but not agreeable for a
growing child. He had formed a sort of antipathy for Injuns at that
time, which he confessed he hadn't rightly been able to overcome.

"Now, he allus found himself planning how to hand Mr. Lo the double
cross and avoid complications.

"We worked down into South Western Arizony to a spot about
thirty-five miles back of Fort Walker and struck a prospect. Sort of
a teaser it was, but worth working on. We'd just got nicely started
when Kink comes into camp one day after taking a passiar around the
butte for game, and says:

"'The queerest thing happened to me just now, Kid.'

"'Well, scream it at me,' I says, sort of smelling trouble in the air.

"'Oh! It wasn't much,' says he. 'I was just working down the big
canyon over there after a deer when I seen two feather-dusters coming
up the trail. I hid behind a rock, watching 'em go past, and I'm
durned if my gun didn't go off accidental and plumb ruin one of 'em.