"Well onto a year," said the one who seemed the elder of the two. "How is it with you, stranger?"
"I have been here about as long," answered Bradley. "Ben has only just come out."
"What luck have you had?" pursued the questioner.
"Good and bad. I made quite a pile, and went to 'Frisco and gambled it away like a fool. Now I've come back for another trial."
'"What might your name be?"
"Bradley-Jake Bradley. It isn't much of a name, but it'll do for me. The boy is Ben Stanton—come from the East."
"My name is Bill Mosely," said the other. "My friend's Tom Hadley. We're both from Missouri, and, though I say it, we're about as wide-awake as they make 'em. We don't stand no back talk, Tom and me. When a man insults me, I drop him," and the speaker rolled his eyes in what was meant to stimulate ferocity.
Bradley eyed him shrewdly, and was not quite so much impressed as Mosely intended him to be. He had observed that the greatest boasters did not always possess the largest share of courage.
"Isn't that so, Tom?" asked Bill Mosely, appealing to his friend.
"I should say so," answered Tom, nodding emphatically.