sake of his neighbor's company. He inclosed a draft on San Francisco,
for a sum sufficient to enable Jim to put up a cabin and "stock" the
property, which he begged he would consider in the light of a loan, to
be paid back in installments, only when the property could afford it.
At the same time, if Jim was in difficulty, he was to inform him. The
letter closed with a characteristic Clarence-like mingling of enthusiasm
and older wisdom. "I wish you luck, Jim, but I see no reason why you
should trust to it. I don't know of anything that could keep you from
making yourself independent of any one, if you go to work with a LONG
AIM and don't fritter away your chances on short ones. If I were you,
old fellow, I'd drop the Plains and the Indians out of my thoughts, or
at least out of my TALK, for a while; they won't help you in the long
run. The people who believe you will be jealous of you; those who don't,
will look down upon you, and if they get to questioning your little
Indian romances, Jim, they'll be apt to question your civilized facts.
That won't help you in the ranching business and that's your only real
grip now." For the space of two or three hours after this, Jim was
reasonably grateful and even subdued,--so much so that his employer, to
whom he confided his good fortune, frankly confessed that he believed
him from that unusual fact alone. Unfortunately, neither the practical
lesson conveyed in this grim admission, nor the sentiment of gratitude,
remained long with Jim. Another idea had taken possession of his fancy.
Although the land nominated in his bill of sale had been, except on the
occasion of his own temporary halt there, always unoccupied,
unsought, and unclaimed, and although he was amply protected by legal
certificates, he gravely collected a posse of three or four idlers from
Fair Plains, armed them at his own expense, and in the dead of night
took belligerent and forcible possession of the peaceful domain which
the weak generosity and unheroic dollars of Clarence had purchased for
him! A martial camp-fire tempered the chill night winds to the pulses of