trouble by putting that Colt hanging there to your head, and pulling the
trigger. It is a bad country, and it is full of bad Indians, and there
ain't many, even of the oldest hands, who care to risk their lives by
going where Straight Harry has gone.

"I did all I could to keep him from it; but he is just as obstinate as a
mule when he has made up his mind to a thing. I know him well, for we
worked as mates for over a year down on the Yuba in California. We made
a good pile, and as I had got a wife and wanted to settle I came back
east. This place had a couple of dozen houses then; but I saw it was
likely to boom, so I settled down and set up this saloon and sent for my
wife to come west to me. If she had lived I should have been in a sight
bigger place by this time; but she died six months after she got here,
and then I did not care a continental one way or the other; and I like
better to stop here, where I meet my old mates and can do as I like,
than to run a big hotel. It ain't much to look at, but it suits me, and
I am content to know that I could buy up the biggest place here if I had
a fancy to. I don't take much money now, but I did when the place was
young; and I bought a few lots of land, and you may bet they have turned
out worth having. Well, don't you act rashly in this business. Another
three months your uncle will turn up, if he is alive; and if he don't
turn up at all I dare say I can put you into a soft thing. If you go on
it is about ten to one you get scalped before you find him. Where are
you staying?"

"At the Grand. The omnibus stopped there last night."

"Well, you stay there for a week and think it over. You have got to
learn about the country west of the Colorado. You had best come here to
do that. You might stay a month at the Grand and not find a soul who