"I'll take a seegar," Mr. Damon Tamroy replied in response to Oliver's invitation. They lighted up and sat at a card-table against one wall of the gloomy saloon. "You speak of this as a gun country," remarked Oliver. "Well, it's at least got traditions," returned Mr. Tamroy, adding the unlettered man's apology for his little fanciful flight, "'as the fella says.' Like father like son, you know. The Seldens are gunmen. Old Adam Selden's dad was a 'Forty-niner; and Adam Selden--the Old Man Selden of today--was born right close to here when his dad was about twenty-five years old. Le's see--that makes Old Adam 'round about seventy. But he's spry and full o' pep, and one o' the best rifle shots in the country. "He takes after the old man, who was a bad actor in the days o' 'Forty-nine, and his boys take after him. They're a bad outfit, takin' 'em all in all. The boys are Hurlock, Moffat, Bolar, and Winthrop--four of 'em. All gunmen. Then there's Jessamy Selden--the only girl--who ain't rightly a Selden at all. None o' the old man's blood in Jessamy, o' course. Mis' Selden--she was an Ivison before she married Lomax--Myrtle Ivison was her name--she's a fine lady. But she won't leave the old man for all his wickedness, and Miss Jessamy won't leave her mother. So there you are!" "I see," said Oliver musingly, not at all displeased with the present subject of conversation. "Now, here's this Digger Foss," Tamroy went on. "He's half-American, quarter-Chinaman, and quarter-Digger-Indian. The last's what gives him his name. There's a tribe o' Digger Indians close to here. He's killed two men and got away with it. Now he's added a third to his list, and likely he'll get away with that. The rest o' the Poison Oakers are Obed Pence, Ed Buchanan, Jay Muenster, and Chuck Allegan--ten in all." "Just what are the Poison Oakers?" Oliver asked as Damon Tamroy paused reflectively. "Well, _anybody_ who lives in this country is called a Poison Oaker. You're one now. The woods about this country are full o' poison oak, and that's where we get the name. That's what outsiders call us. But when we ourselves speak of Poison Oakers we mean Old Man Selden's gang--him, his four sons, and the hombres I just mentioned--a regular old back-country gang o' rowdies, toughs, would-be bad men. You know what I mean. "They just drifted together by natural instinct, I reckon. Old Man Selden shot a man up around Willow Twig, and come clean at the trial. Obed Pence is a thief, and did a stretch for cattle rustlin' here about three years ago. Chuck and Ed have both done something to make 'em eligible--knife fightin' at country dances, and the like. And the Selden boys are chips off the old block." "But what is the gang's particular purpose?"