"Who's your little friend?" Keith whispered.
"Never saw him before in my life," replied Johnny.
The announcement was received with indecision. Nobody immediately replied or commented aloud on the nomination, but men were asking each other in undertones. The little spectacled man saw this, and spoke up again:
"Perhaps I should say that Mr. Fairfax is better known as Diamond Jack."
Faces cleared, heads nodded. A murmur of recognition replaced the puzzled frowning, "Good man," "The express rider," "Danny Randall's man," they told each other.
"I do not know Mr. Fairfax," the spectacled man was saying, "but I saw his name just before mine on the register."
"This is Fairfax," said Keith, thrusting the reluctant Johnny forward.
He was elected to the post by acclamation.
"Nominations for a lieutenant?" suggested the spectacled man, but Keith interrupted.
"If you all have as much confidence in Mr. Fairfax as I have," said he, "perhaps you'll give him free hand and let him pick his own officers."