“‘Yes, La Trinidad.’
“Then I laughed more, but—not long. That night he ast me ter take a couple o’ the boys, an’ go up inter that snake-infested peak with him. We didn’t wanter. Snakes hadn’t be’n troublesome none, ’long back; but, somehow, thar warn’t no refusin’, he looked that queer an’ un-Sutry like. So next mornin’ we went; an’ goin’ up he told me all the bad news ’bout you all, an’ his way o’ changin’ it inter good. He’d foond out, he thought, ’at Steenie here couldn’t ’herit till he was dead. He could gin her anything he’d a mind to; but he knowed nobody wouldn’t b’lieve none o’ his big talk, long as he lived. But if it was her ’n, out an’ out, they’d have ter try an’ see what this ’heritance was. He kinder impressed me even then; an’ we went on quite chipper. Killed a few rattlers by the way, an’ went spang up an’ up, an’ then down ag’in, inter the very heart o’ the mountain. Then I seed thar’d be’n some prospectin’ done thar sometime. We found a trail an’ we follered it.
“An’ I ain’t never laughed at Sutry Vives, ner La Trinidad property—sence. What he showed us was enough ter sober a drunken man arter a big spree.
“Then we started hum ag’in; but, half-way down, Sutry called us ter stop.
“‘Boys,’ says he, ‘ye’ve seen what I showed ye. I picked you three out, ’cause you love the Little Un, an’ I kin trest ye. Sw’ar ’at you’ll be true ter yer trest; sw’ar ter do the plumb square by the little Seenoreety.’
“You bet we swore!—all an’ more’n he ast us. Then we went on ag’in, but Sutry didn’t foller.
“‘I feel like I’d like ter stay here a little while alone,’ says he; ’an’ if I don’t come down in fair season, you kin come an’ hunt me up.’
“‘Better not,’ says I. But he would; an’ we, each on us, had our dooty ter do, an’ so we left him.”
There was a long silence, broken, at last, by Steenie, asking softly: “Well?”
“Well, when I rec’lect that night—I—Huckleberries! Carn’t ye guess it? Think o’ the squarest thing a feller could do, an’ then know he done it,—that poor, laughed-at, despised, weak-witted old Don Sutry!”