“‘Thanky,’ says I; ‘but hold—is the road safe to town?’
’"Sure; we’ve cleaned ’em, all but one bunch.’
“‘Well,’ says I, ’then Percy and me’ll just amble back together the way we come. I don’t want him to know nothing about any trouble.’
“After chewin’ for a while he consented, and away went the army.
“So bimeby Percy woke up and said he’d had a nice nap and felt refreshed and—um—invigorated, and him and me went back to town, and he never suspicioned ther’d been an Injun risin’, soldiers nor nothin’. I have felt like offering one hundred dollars’ reward to the person who’d produce something that Percy would suspect. And whenever I think of that my spirits lift to that extent I could almost go out and get married again.
“And this here ticker I set great store by, because it come from Percy and says inside of it, ’To E. G. Washington Scraggs, in memory of our beautiful friendship, from Percival Mervin’—and that to a tough old Mormon like me! Well, he was one darned nice little man.”