of the hut. "Besides ef, as is most likely, he's growed long hair an' a
beard since he left the States, his own mother wouldn't know him from
George Washington. Brother o' yourn?"

"No," said one of the thin men; "he's--well, the fact is, we'll give a
thousand dollars to any one who'll find him for us in twenty-four
hours."

"Deppity sheriffs?" asked the colonel, retiring somewhat hastily under
his blankets.

"About the same thing," said one of the thin men, with a sickly smile.

"Git!" roared the colonel, suddenly springing from his bed, and cocking
his revolver. "I b'lieve in the Golden Rule, _I_ do!"

The detectives, with the fine instinct peculiar to their profession,
rightly construed the colonel's action as a hint, and withdrew, and Jim
retired to his own hut, and fell asleep while waiting for his partner.

Morning came, but no Tarpaulin; dinner-time arrived, but Jim ate alone,
and was rather blue. He loved a sociable chat, and of late Tarpaulin had
been almost his sole companion.

Evening came, but Tarpaulin came not.

Jim couldn't abide the saloon for a whole evening, so he lit a candle in
his own hut, and attempted to read.

Tarpaulin was a lover of newspapers--it seemed to Jim he received more