"Why!" replied Weasel, greatly pleased by the colonel's compliment,
"after what you said about hair and beard hidin' a man, one of them
fellers cut a card an' held it over the picture, so as to hide hair an'
chin. The forehead an' face an' nose an' ears wuz Tarpaulin's, an'
nobody else's."

"Lightning's blazes!" roared the colonel, "Ha, ha, ha! why, Tarpaulin
hisself came into my shanty, an' looked at the pictur', an' talked to
them 'bout it! Trot out yer glassware, barkeeper--_got_ to drink to a
feller that's ez cool ez all that!"

The boys drank with the colonel, but they were too severely astonished
to enjoy the liquor particularly. In fact, old Bermuda, who had never
taken anything but plain rye, drank three fingers of claret that day,
and did not know of it until told.

The colonel's mind was unusually excited. It seemed to him there were a
number of probabilities upon which to hang bets. He walked outside, that
his meditation might be undisturbed, but in an instant he was back,
crying:

"Lady comin'!"

Shirt-sleeves and trowsers-legs were hurriedly rolled down,
shirt-collars were buttoned, hats were dusted, and then each man went
leisurely out, with the air of having merely happened to leave the
saloon--an air which imposed upon no disinterested observer.

Coming up the trail beside the creek were a middle-aged gentleman and a