Whether he alluded to the drink or to my impertinence I was unable to divine. Without adding a word he left the room amid a chorus of “Good night, Sheriff!” With him went Martin and half-a-dozen more. I thought I had come out of the matter fairly well until I spoke to some of the men standing near. They answered me, it is true, but in monosyllables, and evidently with unwillingness. In silence I finished my whisky, feeling that every one was against me for some inexplicable cause. I resented this and stayed on. In a quarter of an hour the rest of the crowd had departed, with the exception of Morris and a few of the same kidney. When I noticed that these gamblers, outlaws by public opinion, held away from me, I became indignant. Addressing myself to Morris, I asked: “Can you tell me, sir, for you seem to be an educated man, what I have said or done to make you all shun me?” “I guess so,” he answered indifferently. “You took a hand in a game where you weren't wanted. And you tried to come in without ever having paid the _ante,_ which is not allowed in any game--at least not in any game played about here.” The allusion seemed plain; I was not only a stranger, but a foreigner; that must be my offence. With a “Good night, sir; good night, bar-keeper!” I left the room. * * * * * The next morning I went as usual to the office. I may have been seated there about an hour--it was almost eight o'clock--when I heard a knock at the door. “Come in,” I said, swinging round in the American chair, to find myself face to face with Sheriff Johnson. “Why, Sheriff, come in!” I exclaimed cheerfully, for I was relieved at seeing him, and so realized more clearly than ever that the unpleasantness of the previous evening had left in me a certain uneasiness. I was eager to show that the incident had no importance: “Won't you take a seat? and you'll have a cigar?--these are not bad.” “No, thank you,” he answered. “No, I guess I won't sit nor smoke jest now.” After a pause, he added, “I see you're studyin'; p'r'aps you're busy to-day; I won't disturb you.” “You don't disturb me, Sheriff,” I rejoined. “As for studying, there's not much in it. I seem to prefer dreaming.” “Wall,” he said, letting his eyes range round the walls furnished with Law Reports bound in yellow calf, “I don't know, I guess there's a big lot of readin' to do before a man gets through with all those.” “Oh,” I laughed, “the more I read the more clearly I see that law is only a sermon on various texts supplied by common sense.” “Wall,” he went on slowly, coming a pace or two nearer and speaking with increased seriousness, “I reckon you've got all Locock's business to see after: his clients to talk to; letters to answer, and all that; and when he's on the drunk I guess he don't do much. I won't worry you any more.”