"Yes, sir. The boss says ter me yestiddy, 'Why is Derry Power hangin' roun' Mac's?' Says I, 'He bruk his leg.' 'Pity he didn't break his neck,' says the boss, an', seein' as you'se a friend of mine, I didn't agree with any sich sentiments, an' tole him the same. He kind o' curled up then; but this mornin' he gev me the perlite push,--said as he was quittin' Bison fer a spell, an' the ranch would be shut down. Anyways, Derry, I'm mighty glad ter see you hoppin' aroun'. Git down outer that rig, an' hev a sociable drink." Power consulted his watch, and seemed to arrive at some decision on the spur of the moment. "Can't wait now," he said. "You'll be here this evening?" "Sure." "Then I'll be around, and I may table a proposition that will please you. Jim," this to the driver, "beat it to the depot. I want to make the ten o'clock to Denver, and we have only twenty minutes." MacGonigal, as usual a silent auditor, gazed after the cloud of dust raised by horse and buggy, and was minded, perhaps, to say something. Whatever may have been his first intent, he repressed it. "What's yer pizen, Jake?" he inquired, and the cowboy named it. Late that night Power returned. He was so tired that he had practically to be carried to bed; but he contrived to tell the storekeeper that Jake should remain in Bison at his (Power's) expense until certain business conditions had developed. Next day he was too exhausted to take any exercise; but sat in the veranda after breakfast, smoking and chatting with the habitués, whose varied surmises he shared, when a stranger whizzed through the township in the buggy, vanished in the direction of the Gulch, and returned with equal celerity of movement a couple of hours subsequently. "Looks like a lawyer," said some wiseacre. "Them fellers air allus on a hair-trigger when a mortgage falls in." "Is Willard's time up?" inquired another man. "Thar was talk about it afore this dry spell kem an' cleared him out. Of course----" The speaker stopped suddenly. He was on the point of alluding to Nancy's marriage, when he remembered that Power was present, and, in such circumstances, it is safe to assume that a gathering of rough western miners will display more real courtesy and consideration for the feelings of others than may be forthcoming in far more pretentious circles. "No need to trip your tongue on my account," laughed Power, reaching lazily for a glass of milk and seltzer. "You were going to say, I suppose, that when Mr. Willard's daughter married a rich man the mortgage difficulty would disappear." "Somethin' like that, Derry," was the answer. "Did you ever hear the amount of the mortgage?" "Five thousand, I was told." Power laughed again. "Five thousand!" he cried. "Surely Nancy Willard cost more than that! Why, Marten gave me that amount as a rake-off on one job I put through for him this spring."