"Fanny, me boy, if I thought I ’d ever conthract Dirty’s partic’lar brand o’ sinfulness, I ’d punch a hole in th’ river—with me head," and he solemnly led the way in to the bar. "Gentlemen, it’s on me," declared Tex, "—for good and special reasons," he explained, when they began to expostulate. "Give me a large and generous glass," he requested of the barkeeper, "and fill it with ’Water for me, water for me, and whiskey for them which find it agree.’ You see, gentlemen, liquor an’ I don’t team no better ’n a lamb an’ a coyote. I must either love it or leave it alone an’ I ’m dead set agin’ spiritual marriage. Here ’s how." "If I ’d begun like that I ’d be a rich man this day," observed Mike, when his head resumed the perpendicular. "If I ’d begun like that I would n’t be here at all," responded Tex. "Well, ye ’ll have a cigar with me, anyhow. Putt a name to it, boys, an’, Fred, whisper: Pass up that wee little box ye keep, in th’ locker. Me friend, Comin’, will take a good one, while he ’s at it." A blue-shirted miner next him interposed: "’T is my trate. He ’ll hev a cigar with me, he well. Das’ thee thenk I be goin’ to drenk with thee arl the time, and thee never taake a drenk ’long o’ me? Set un up, Fred, my son, and doan’t forget the lettle box." Tex gazed curiously at the speaker. It was his first meeting with a Cornishman and Bill Tregloan was a character in more than speech. Wherever gold, or a rumor of gold, drew the feet of miner, there sooner or later would be Bill Tregloan. He had crossed the continent to California on foot and alone at a time when such an attempt was more than dangerous. That he escaped the natural perils of the trip was sufficiently wonderful; as for the Indians, there is no doubt they thought him mad. Bill had his way in paying for the order and turned to lounge against the bar when his eye caught sight of that which drew from him a torrent of sputtering oaths and a harsh command. The only one who had failed to join the others at the bar was Charley, the Cheyenne Indian. He lay sprawled on the floor against the opposite wall, very drunk and asleep, and about to be subjected to one of the pleasing jokes of the railroad towns, in this instance very crudely prepared. The oil with which he was soaked, had been furnished far too plentifully, and he stood an excellent chance of being well roasted when the match, then burning, should be applied.