. "Plain 'Shorty' of the
Bar X--er--a miserable, crawlin' worm for disturbin' of you." He
rolled his eyes helplessly at Bailey, while he sopped with his
crumpled sombrero at the glistening perspiration.

"Why didn't ye tell me?" he whispered ferociously at the host, and
the volume of his query carried to Joy, hiding out in the night.

"Mr. Shorty," said the sheriff gravely; "let me introduce my wife,
Mrs. Turney."

The bride smiled sweetly at the tremulous little man, who broke and
fled to a high bench in the darkest corner, where he dangled his
short legs in a silent ecstasy of bashfulness.

"I reckon I'll have to rope that Chink, then blindfold and back him
into the kitchen, if we git any supper," said Bailey, disappearing.

Later the Chinaman stole in to set the table, but he worked with
hectic and fitful energy, a fearful eye always upon the dim bulk in
the corner, and at a fancied move he shook with an ague of
apprehension. Backing and sidling, he finally announced the meal,
prepared to stampede madly at notice.

During the supper Shorty ate ravenously of whatever lay to his hand,
but asked no favours. The agony of his shyness paralysed his huge
vocal muscles till speech became a labour quite impossible.

To a pleasant remark of the bride he responded, but no sound issued,
then breathing heavily into his larynx, the reply roared upon them
like a burst of thunder, seriously threatening the gravity of the
meal. He retired abruptly into moist and self-conscious silence,
fearful of feasting his eyes on this disturbing loveliness.

As soon as compatible with decency, he slipped back to his bunk in
the shed behind, and lay staring into the darkness, picturing the
amazing occurrences of the evening. At the memory of her level
glances he fell a-tremble and sighed ecstatically, prickling with a
new, strange emotion. He lay till far into the night, wakeful and
absorbed. He was able, to grasp the fact but dimly that all this
dazzling perfection was for one man. Were it not manifestly
impossible he supposed other men in other lands knew other ladies as
beautiful, and it furthermore grew upon him blackly, in the thick
gloom, that in all this world of womanly sweetness and beauty, no
modicum of it was for the misshapen dwarf of the Bar X outfit. All
his life he had fought furiously to uphold the empty shell of his
dignity in the eyes of his comrades, yet always morbidly conscious of
the difference in his body