The old trapper put down the various articles of baggage with which his arms were loaded and came into the kitchen-cabin where we all stood. He glanced at the group and then at the stilted stove in our midst. “I see you air all admirin’ my stove,” said he, “and I’ll bet you’ve been a-wonderin’ why it is up so high.” “Yes, we have,” said the professor; “how did you know it?” “People most allus generally jest as soon as they come into the place begin to ask me about it--that’s how I knowed.” “Well, why is it up so high?” demanded the stock-broker impatiently, with a side glance at the well-developed jack-pot on the table. “The reason’s simple enough,” said Long Tom, with a grin that showed his bicuspids; “you see we had to pack all this stuff up here from down below on _burros_. Originally there was four j’ints of that stove-pipe, but the cinch wasn’t drawed tight enough on the _burro_ that was carryin’’em, and two of’em slipped out and rolled down the mountain. When we got here and found that there wasn’t but two pieces left, I reckoned that I would have to kinder h’ist the stove to make it fit the pipe--so I jest in an’ h’isted her. And thar she is yet. Say, what’s all this here money on the table for?” There was a deep silence which lasted so long that Tom ventured to repeat his question about the money. “It is a jack-pot,” said the doctor, sadly, “and as near as I can make out, it belongs to you.” THE SEATS OF JUDGMENT By C. W. Doyle I. That Two Eyes are Better than One in the Dark. “Thou hast the writings of Le Toy, Wau Shun?” asked Sam Lee of his brother-highbinder, as the latter issued from the receiving hospital of San Francisco. “Verily, or thou hadst heard my dogs bark within,” replied Wau Shun. “And Lee Toy?” “Lee Toy died babbling of wings, and of the white babe whose life he saved from fire this day at the price of his own, and whose father stood beside him weeping like a woman.” “Was ever the like seen before!” exclaimed Sam Lee. “That Lee Toy, the bravest of the brave, the keenest hatchet of our ‘tong,’ should fail his brethren, and break his oaths, and worship the white babe whose abduction he had undertaken--and that the babe’s father should weep for one of our people!” “Ay, and, what is of more importance, that Lee Toy should have given me the writings that would have hanged us, who compassed his passing! Eh, Sam Lee?” “Yea, Wau Shun; and compassed also the hanging of Quong Lung--nay, turn not so suddenly in a narrow lane, my brother, for I have but one eye, as thou knowest, and that can not abide swift movement in the dark on the part of a man whose life is forfeit”; and Sam Lee drew a darkling revolver from his blouse. With a deft movement, Wau Shun, who had the advantage of two eyes--though they looked in different directions and were hard to meet--threw Sam Lee’s hand up, and snatched the pistol from him.