In fact, I seemed to have ten friends after the affair to one before.

But Dick McGill, whose connection with it I have felt justified in exposing, still hounded me through his paper.

I have before me the copy of the _Journal_--little four-page sheet yellowed with time, with the account of it which follows: "A desperado named Vandemark, well known to the annals of local crime as 'Cow Vandemark,' was arrested last Wednesday for leading the riots which have cleaned out those industrious citizens who have been jumping claims in this county.

A reporter of the _Journal_, which finds out everything before it happens, attended the ceremonies of giving some of these people a coat of tar and feathers, and can speak from personal observation as to the ferocity of this ruffian Vandemark--also from slight personal contact.
"This hardened wretch is in every feature a villain--except that he has a rosy complexion, downy whiskers, and buttermilk eyes, instead of the black flashing orbs of fiction.

Sheriff Boyd decoyed him into town, skilfully avoiding any rousing of his tigerish disposition, and is now making a blacksmith of him--or was until yesterday, when he paroled him to Miss Virginia Royall, the ward of the Reverend Thorndyke.
"This is a very questionable policy.