He started a little as his eyes fell on the bars. He pulled his shoulders together. Recollection followed puzzlement on his yet unguarded face; he passed his fingers through his tousled hair, making further tanglement. He looked at the absurd gigantic figure beyond the bars, and his eyes crinkled to smiling. Then his face took on an expression of discontent. He eyed his bed with frank distaste. "I say, old top--no offense, and all that, but look now--I've never been in jail before. Is the establishment all scientific and everything? No objectionable--er--creepers, you know?" "Why, you impudent young whelp! Damn your hide, I sleep here myself. If there's a grayback in my jail I'll eat your shirt. What in time do you mean by it, hey? Pulling my leg? You'd a heap better be studying about your silly neck, you young devil. Come out of that, now! Nine o'clock, past. Wish I had your conscience. Ten hours' solid sleep and still going strong." "Gee, why didn't you wake me up? Are they going to hold my preliminary trial this morning or wait till after dinner? I'm sort of interested to see what indiscriminating evidence they've got." "No trial to-day," said Gwinne gruffly. "Justice of the peace is up in the hills beyond Kingston, doin' assessments. They've gone after him, but they won't get back till late to-night." "H'm!" Johnny rubbed his nose and looked searchingly at his ridiculously small and shapely feet; he wriggled his toes. "And don't I eat till His Honor gets back?" he inquired diffidently. Gwinne rose heavily and shambled to the cell. "If I let you out to eat breakfast with me like a white man--no pranks?" "Nary prank," said Johnny. "She goes," said Gwinne. He unlocked the door. Johnny slipped on his high-heeled boots and followed his jailer to the kitchen. "Water and washpan over there," said Gwinne, and poked fresh wood in the fire. "Ham and eggs this A. M." He rumbled a subterranean ditty: _Ham-fat, ham-fat, smoking in the pan-- There's a mighty sight of muscle on a ham-fat man._ Johnny sent an amused glance up and down his warden's inches. "You must have been raised on it, then." "Hog and hominy. There's a comb and brush." "Got a comb." Johnny fumbled comb and toothbrush from his vest, and completed his toilet. "Haven't you had breakfast yet?" "Naw. I hated to wake you up, you was hitting it off so regular. And you're the only prisoner I got now. Court's just over and the sheriff he's gone to Santa Fé with my only boarders. Lord only knows when he'll get back," said Mr. Gwinne parenthetically. "Jim is a good sheriff, a mighty good sheriff--but when he gets away from home he sees life through a glass darkly. They had him in jail, last time. So I thought we might as well be sociable." "Oh! Then you're the party for me to jolly up when I want favors?"