Nor had there been any test of fitness or qualification for citizenship
through previous virtue. There were one or two gamblers, a skillful
duelist, and men who still drank whiskey who had voluntarily sought the
camp. Of some such antecedents was the last speaker. Probably with two
wives elsewhere, and a possible homicidal record, he had modestly held
aloof from obtrusive argument.

"Well, we must have a meeting and put the question squarely to the boys
to-morrow," said Parks, gazing thoughtfully from the window. The remark
was followed by another long silence. Beyond, in the darkness, Buckeye,
unconscious of the momentous question awaiting its decision, slept on
peacefully.

"I brought the keg of whiskey and brandy from Red Gulch to-day that
Doctor Duchesne spoke of," he resumed presently. "You know he said we
ought to have some in common stock that he could always rely upon in
emergencies, and for use after the tule fever. I didn't agree with him,
and told him how I had brought Sam Denver through an attack with quinine
and arrowroot, but he laughed and wanted to know if we'd 'resolved'
that everybody should hereafter have the Denver constitution. That's
the trouble with those old army surgeons,--they never can get over the
'heroics' of their past. Why he told Parson Jennings that he'd rather
treat a man for jim-jams than one that was dying for want of stimulants.
However, the liquor is here, and one of the things we must settle
tomorrow is the question if it ought not to be issued only on Duchesne's
prescription. When I made that point to him squarely, he grinned again,
and wanted to know if I calculated to put the same restriction on the
sale of patent medicines and drugs generally."

"'N powder 'n shot," contributed the indifferent man.