“Well, I ain’t goin’ to ask you to swear to it,” said Shepard. “If a man’s word can’t be believed, I wouldn’t believe his oath. You’ve heard, o’ course, of the escape of Juniper. Everybody has. So, what do you think of it?” “You vas neatly done.” “That’s right.” He turned to Gopher Gabe. “I’m goin’ to talk straight, Gabe,” he said to him. “I’ve always been your friend, you know.” “Sure!” Gopher Gabe grunted. “Well, it’s like this: You’re bein’ suspected. First, they say that you’re in with the thieves and thugs that have been workin’ overtime round this camp lately. Then they say that you know something about this plan by which I was induced to let Juniper Joe slip through my fingers.” “All a lie,” said Gopher Gabe. “Of course I expected you’d say that. So I’ve got only this remark to make, though really I haven’t any right, as an officer of the law, to make it. It’s jest this: If any of the things that’s bein’ said are so, I give you warning that it must be stopped. If you’re helpin’ Juniper and Benson in their present game of hide-out, stop it; and if you’re in with any of those hold-up men, stop that, too; and short off.” Gopher Gabe’s face flushed and his ratlike eyes glittered, but he kept his temper within bounds, so that when he spoke his voice was as usual. He even laughed as he retorted: “All lies. You know the kind of business I run here--something to drink, with gambling as a side issue, and the serving of the Casino wine rooms. Everything’s open and aboveboard. I ain’t no call to do any different.” “You oughtn’t to have, Gabe, and that’s a fact.” The sheriff got to his feet. “I stand for law and order here,” he said; “that’s my business, and I’m goin’ to run it straight so long’s as the people elect me to the office. You’d do the same, in my place. But I play fair. So I jest dropped in to give you warnin’.” He left the room, and they heard him speak to the barkeeper on his way to the street. “Now, vhat do you think of that?” asked White-eyed Moses. “It’s like Shepard, and it’s the thing that makes him so popular.” “He’ll pull you, chust the same?” “Oh, yes, if I give him the chance.” “You noticed that he ditn’t say anything aboudt Vera Bright and the putting of some one as a sby in blace of one of your vaiters!” “Well, I reckon he’s got sense enough to keep some things to himself.” Gopher Gabe finished the beer on the table. He did not seem disturbed. CHAPTER XVI. THE GOPHER BITES. Vera Bright found that Buffalo Bill was right in his conjecture that she would have no difficulty in securing her former position and that the manager would consider her recent notoriety an added attraction. So she appeared in the show that evening in her former part. When the performance was ended and she went back to the wine rooms, she was told that Gopher Gabe wished to see her. One of the waiters brought the invitation.