I went back to the barn and sat down in the office. To tell the truth, I felt easier that Pike was gone. I well knew that he had no love for me. I sat a long time thinking over what had happened since I had come to Track's End. It seemed, as if things had crowded one another so much that I had scarcely had time to think at all. I little guessed all the time for thinking that I was going to have before I got away from the place. While I was sitting there on the bench an old gentleman came in and asked something about getting a team with which to drive into the country. There was a livery stable in town kept by a man named Munger and a partner whose name I have forgotten; but their horses were all out. The Headquarters barn was mainly for the teams of people who put up at the hotel, but Sours had two horses which we sometimes let folks have. After the old gentleman had finished his business he asked me my name, and then said: "Well, Judson, you did the right thing in pointing out that desperado the other night. I'm pleased to know you." My reply was that I couldn't very well have done otherwise than I did after what I saw. "But there's many that wouldn't have done it, just the same," answered the old gentleman. "Knowing the kind of a man he is, it was very brave of you. My name is Clerkinwell. I run the Bank of Track's End, opposite the Headquarters House. I hope to hear further good reports of you." He was a very courtly old gentleman, and waved his hand with a flourish as he went out. You may be sure I was tickled at getting such words of praise from no less a man than a banker. I hurried and took the team around to the bank, and had a good look at it. It was a small, square, two-story wooden building, like many of the others, with large glass windows in the front, through which I could see a counter, and behind it a big iron safe. I had given up sleeping in the house, with its squirrel-cage rooms, preferring the soft prairie hay of the barn. But when bedtime came this night Mr. Clerkinwell had not returned, so I sat up to wait for the team. He had told me that he might be late. It was past midnight when he drove up to the barn. "Good-evening, Judson," said he. "So you waited for me." "Yes, sir," I answered. "Do you know if Allenham or any one is on watch about town to-night?" "I think not, sir," I said. "I haven't seen nor heard anybody for over an hour." "Very careless, very careless," muttered the old gentleman. Then he went out, and in a moment I heard his footsteps as he went up the outside stairs to his rooms in the second story of his bank building. I put the horses in their stalls, and fed and watered them, and started up the ladder to the loft. What Mr. Clerkinwell had said was still running in my mind. I stopped and thought a moment, and concluded that I was not sleepy, and decided to take a turn about town.