“He seemed pretty desperate, but there’s not much behind his outward appearance. I saw that in the first place.” “How could you see it?” “Well, I will explain. He is masquerading here in cowboy rig, and he is doing that to impress the people of this place. He makes himself look as fierce and terrible as possible. That is for the purpose of terrifying people and making them stand in awe of him. He has a way of swaggering and bragging. Now, a real desperado seldom makes such an effort to convince people that he is desperate. Very often it is the case that the genuine desperado, the real dangerous man, is peaceful and mild in appearance, seeking to avoid rather than to attract attention. One of the most desperate ruffians the West ever produced—Slade—was as mild-mannered as a woman. Wild Bill, who was a ‘killer’ all his life, never swaggered and boasted of what he could do. Jesse James was not a boaster. I might name many others. In nine cases out of ten, the desperado who boasts and brags, who swaggers and tries to frighten everybody by his terrible appearance, is a craven at heart, and he may be handled with ease once he realizes he has met his master.” “Merriwell,” said Havener, “it is a wonder to me how you read human character so well. Do you ever make a mistake?” “Oh, yes!” laughed Frank, honestly. “I have made lots of mistakes.” “How?” “By trusting men who were rascals. By giving them too much chance at me.” “It’s alwus in that way that he makes mistakes, by thutter!” put in Gallup. “He never makes um any other way, an’ I guess by jee! that sometimes when he does trust a feller, he knows the chap’s crooked, but kainder hopes he won’t prove that way.” “Yes,” smiled Merry, “I have trusted many chaps, while I felt in my heart that they were crooked, but I hoped I might be mistaken. I do not like to condemn a man before he has been given a show to display what there is in him.” Dunton had been walking along in silence after his first remark. Now he observed: “I rather believe that sometimes, by trusting such fellows, you put them on their honor so that they are ashamed to do you a dirty turn.” “That is my object—it is my hope,” said Merry. “The moment a man knows he is mistrusted, if his character is weak, he begins to mistrust himself. Let him feel that others have confidence in him, and his conscience in many cases makes him ashamed of being crooked.”