"Lord, man, you're not robbing me. If you're robbing anybody, it's Doc Simpson,--and he's been absolutely free from toothache ever since I told him this room was dry. Excuse me a second, Court. I always propose a toast before I take a drink up here. Here's to Miss Alix Crown, the finest girl in the U. S. A., and the best boss a man ever had. Course I've never said that in a saloon, but up here it's different,--and kind of sacred." "I usually make a wry face when I drink it neat like this," said Courtney. "You'll like her just as well as I do when you get to know her, boy. I've known her since she was a little kid,--long before she was sent abroad,--and she's the salt of the earth. That's one thing on which Doc and Hatch and me always agree. We differ on most everything else, but--well, as I was saying, you wait till you get to know her." He tossed off the whiskey in one prodigious gulp, smacked his lips, and then stood watching his guest drink his. Tears came into Courtney's eyes as he drained the last drop of the fiery liquid. A shudder distorted his face. "Pretty hot stuff, eh?" observed Charlie sympathetically. Courtney's reply was a nod of the head, speech being denied him. "Don't try to talk yet," said Charlie, as if admonishing a child who has choked on a swallow of water. "Anyhow," he went on quaintly, after a moment, "it makes you forget all about your toothache, don't it?" The other cleared his throat raucously. "Now I know why the redskins call it fire water," said he. "Have another?" "Not on your life," exclaimed the New Yorker. "Put it back in the trunk,--and lock it up!" "No sooner said than done," said Charlie amicably. "Now I'll pull up the shades and let in a little of our well-known hoosier atmosphere,--and some real moonshine. Hello! There go Hatch and Angie, out for a stroll. Yep! She's got him headed toward Foster's soda water joint. I'll bet every tooth in his head is achin'." "How long have you been running the grain elevator, Charlie?" "Ever since David Windom built it, back in 1897,--twenty-two years. I took a few months off in '98, expecting to see something of Cuba, but the darned Spaniards surrendered when they heard I was on the way, so I never got any farther than Indianapolis. Twenty-two years. That's almost as long as Alix Crown has lived altogether." "Have you ever seen the grave at the top of Quill's Window?" "When I first came here, yes. Nobody ever goes up there now. In the first place, she don't like it, and in the second place, most people in these parts are honourable. We wouldn't any more think of trespassin' up there than we'd think of pickin' somebody's pocket. Besides which, there's supposed to be rattlesnakes up there among the rocks. And besides that, the place is haunted." "Haunted? I understood it was the old Windom house that is haunted."