"I wanted you to come because since the Guide
began the services down at the Junction I have been
doin' some thinkin*. I hain't been much help to you,
have I? That's it — that's the thing that bothers me
some. Here's the King; him and me come here before
there was a road. We packed our grub across the
hills a himdred miles on horses. He was not just like
me in his ideas. I took the ground that anything that
beat the other fellow on an open tract was fair racing
and that led me into things that wasn't on the dead
square. I don't need to tell you that I've been some-
thing of a hard one in my day. I've been on the
wrong side of almost everything."

A spasm of coughing shook the old man's frame,
and blood appeared on his lips. As soon as he could,
he continued :

"I just wanted to tell you that I've done a lot of
things in my time I wish I hadn't. But the Guide says
the General Overseer understands all that, and I
wanted to ask you to look over anything the old
man may have done to make it easy for you to go
crooked.
"When you go with the next drive there will bt
more room by the camp fire, for I won't be with you.
But maybe you will think of Jed now and then when
you come to the old waterin' places, where the boys
used to camp when the camas flower was in bloom.'*
The voice broke a little.
Tou bet we will, Jed !" came from many.
