Page:Short Grass (1926).pdf/132

 marshal. We want an officer of the law, not an oppressor. The salary is sixty dollars a month."

He came to it the way Bill would have expected a business proposal from him. No wasting of words or making rabbit trails by that man. Bill was as grateful for the offer as he was surprised by it and relieved of all doubt on his standing.

"I'm afraid I'm not cut out for that kind of a job, Mr. Ruddy," Bill replied, without even taking time to meditate over it and turn it around in his mind.

"The city council has held an informal meeting to consider filling the vacated office," the mayor continued. "The salary is sixty dollars a month."

"I'm complimented—"

"Not at all, not at all," Bergen interposed, lifting his hand to check the conventional words on Bill's tongue, as well as the refusal that they seemed determined not to entertain. "Consider the opportunities of this city, situated as it is in this empire of cattle, with its rapid development, its untouched resources, its tremendous future!"

Bergen waved his arms, he declaimed, not so much to convince Dunham that he would throw away the main chance of his young career by refusing that job, as to impress his true importance on the rest of them in the room. It was his opportunity of calling their attention to what they had missed in passing him on the street that way.

"Yes, I think it'll be a good country when they start farmin' it," Dunham agreed.

"The salary," Mayor Ruddy repeated, looking