me to roost! And how
these chickens had multiplied and grown! On the way home it seemed
that everybody had striven to fatten them up a bit and add
surreptitiously a chicken or two of his own. Oh, these meddlers, these
idle tongues! None of them would set to work to wrong anybody, to
wreck anybody's life. They would shrink in horror from the thought,
let alone the deed. Yet, they must talk, they must exchange the day's
news, they must have news that no one else had; and this competition
is the cause of half the misery on earth. What if they exaggerate a
little here and a little there? No harm is meant. Human nature, having
found its speech, must have something to talk about; that which it has
neither seen nor heard, it invents.

Who had written that letter to Patty? Some woman; man had not yet
acquired such finished cruelty. He could not understand its purpose,
well as he understood women. Who could possibly hate Patty, honest and
loyal as the day is long? McQuade's letters had their existence in
revenge. Patty had wronged no one; McQuade had.

"Well, Jove, old man, you and I may have to pack up on the morrow. If
we are licked, you and I'll go to Japan. That's a country we've always
been wanting to see."

Jove lifted his head, somewhat scarred, and gazed up at his master
with steadfast love in his red-brown eyes. A dog is better than a
horse, a horse is better than a cat, a cat is better than nothing. ...
Warrington sat up quickly, drawing in his legs. A whistle! He caught
his breath and counted. One--two--three--four--five--SIX! ...
Donnelly! He counted no more. Donnelly had won.

His valet found him asleep in the chair the next morning, before a
dead fire. It was cold in the room. The valet touched him, but
Warrington did not move. It was only when he was roughly shaken that
he opened his eyes. A single glance explained the situation. He jumped
to his feet, rubbing his eyes.

"Will you have the morning papers, sir?"

"What's the use?" Warrington shrugged indifferently.

"The majority was only six hundred and eighty-two, sir."

"Then we had them mightily scared for a time. Odd that the 'phone did
not wake me up."

"I took it off the hook, sir, at midnight. I knew it would disturb
you."

"Go down town and bring me up the sailing-lists and a few cabin-plans
for ships bound for Japan. I intend to start for that country just as
soon as I can dispose of the horses."

"Shall you need me, sir?"

"I couldn't ge