leisurely sip at his glass. "Jim come down to see 'em--"

"What?" cried the colonel.

"An' told 'em he knew their man, an' would help find him," continued
Weasel. "They offered him the thousand dollars--"

"Oh, Lord! oh, Lord!" groaned the colonel; "who's a feller to trust in
this world! The idee of Jim goin' back on a pardner fur a thousand! I
wouldn't hev b'lieved he'd a-done it fur a million!"

"An' he told 'em he'd cram it down their throats if they mentioned it
again."

"Bully! Hooray fur Jim!" shouted the colonel. "What'll yer take,
fellers? Fill high! Here's to Jim! the feller that b'lieves his friend's
innercent!"

The colonel looked thoughtfully into his glass, and remarked, as if to
his own reflection therein, "Ain't many such men here nur nowhars else!"
after which he drank the toast himself.

"But that don't explain what Tarpaulin went fur," said the colonel,
suddenly.

"Yes, it does," said the exasperating Weasel, shutting his thin lips so
tightly that it was hard to see where his mouth was.

"What?" cried the colonel. "'Twould take a four-horse corkscrew to get
anything out o' you, you dried-up little scoundrel!"