“At my very natural inquiry, made in a weak voice—for I was still sick and broken—as to what it all meant, they said it was merely a Colorado jest, and intended for the initiation of a tenderfoot.
“'It gives 'em nerve!' said Gassy; 'it puts heart into 'em an' does 'em good!'
“As soon as I could walk I severed my relations with Gassy Thompson and his outlaw adherent, Jim. The next morning my hair had turned the milky sort you see. The Creede people with whom I discussed the crime, laughed and said the drinks were on me. That was all the sympathy, all the redress, I got.
“After that I came East without delay. When I leave the city of New York again it will not be for Creede. Nor will my next mining connection be formed with such abandoned barbarians as Gassy Thompson and Jim.”
ONE MOUNTAIN LION
Pard! would you like to shoot at that lion?”
Bob usually gave me no title at all. But when in any stress of our companionship he was driven to it, I was hailed as “pard!” Once or twice on some lighter occasion he had addressed me by the Spanish “Amigo.” In business hours, however, my rank was “pard!”