TWO SCOUTS 169 



similar conduct on the part of true men like our- 

 selves. 



It was, of course, not long after the commence- 

 ment of this active campaign against the rights 

 of ownership, that we began to receive assurances 

 on every hand that unless we could do something 

 to repress Pat Dixon's vagabondage an outraged 

 people would take the law into their own hands, 

 and avenge the wrongs he had inflicted. With 

 a laudable desire to prevent unnecessary blood- 

 shed, I told him one day of the state of feeling 

 against him, urging him to be more circumspect 

 and to conduct himself like a decent man, else 

 he would be hanged the first time he was caught ; 

 intimating, too, that it would be improper for 

 us to continue to employ him to such needless 

 injury to an inoffensive people. His reply was 

 characteristic. 



"Inoffensive, tvhich? Mebbe you know these 

 people an' mebbe you don't. I do ! and a dern'- 

 der lot of unhung cutthroats an' hoss-thieves you 

 can't find nowheres. As for hangin', you need n't 

 give yourself no worryment 'bout that. They 're 

 8 



