You see, Bulger wasn't going to hev any of his own kind jumpin' his claim here.

And I reckon he was pow'ful enough to back down Sawyer's Dam.

Anyhow, the bluff told--and here we are in peace and quietness." "Until he lets us know what is his little game," sneered Mosby.
Nevertheless, such is the force of mysterious power that although it was exercised against what we firmly believed was the independence of the camp, it extorted a certain respect from us.

A few thought it was not a bad thing to have a professional bully, and even took care to relate the discomfiture of the wicked youth of Sawyer's Dam for the benefit of a certain adjacent and powerful camp who had looked down upon us.
He himself, returning the same evening from his self-imposed escort, vouchsafed no other reason than the one he had already given.
Preposterous as it seemed, we were obliged to accept it, and the still more preposterous inference that he had sought Rattlesnake Camp solely for the purpose of acquiring and securing its peace and quietness.
Certainly he had no other occupation; the little work he did upon the tailings of the abandoned claim which went with his little cabin was scarcely a pretense.

He rode over on certain days to Bigwood on account of his business, but no one had ever seen him there, nor could the description of his manner and appearance evoke any information from the Bigwoodians.