e said:

"Jest think of that! Such a fine young fellow as you are, too. Where
can her eyes be? And I seen you walking this evenin' by the lake just
like two robins. And yet you don't get ahead any!"

"Not a step," said Sam.

"Anybody in your light, you think? Hullo there, Dutchy, swei glass. Any
other fellow takin' your wind?" and his furtive eyes darted a keen
interrogation. Sam did not answer at once, and his friend went on:
"Why, she don't hardly know anybody but me and you, and, he-he! I
wouldn't stand no chance at all against you--hum?"

"Of course you wouldn't," said Sam, with slow contempt, which brought
the muddy blood into the sallow cheek in front of him. "She wouldn't
look at you. I'm not afraid of no man, Andy Offitt,--I'm afraid of
money."

He flattered his jealous heart by these words. It was too intolerable
to think that any mere man should take his sweetheart away from him;
and though he felt how hopeless was any comparison between himself and
Farnham, he tried to soothe himself by the lie that they were equal in
all but money.

His words startled his friend Offitt. He exclaimed, "Why, who does she
know that's got money?"

But Sleeny felt a momentary revolt against delivering to even his
closest confidant the name of the woman he loved coupled with the
degrading suspicions by which he had been tormented all day. He gruffly
answered: "That's none of your business; you can't help me in this
thing, and I ain't agoin' to chin about it any more."

They sat for awhile in silence, drank their beer, and ordered more.
Offitt at last spoke again:

"Well, I'll be hanged if you ain't the best grit of any fellow I know.
If you don't want to talk, a team of Morgan horses couldn't make you. I
like a man that can hold his tongue."

"Then I'm your huckleberry," said Sleeny, whose vanity was soothed by
the compliment.

"That's so," said Offitt, with an admiring smile. "If I wanted a secret
kept, I'd know where to come." Then changing his manner and tone to an
expression of profound solemnity, and glancing about to guard against
surprise, he said: "My dear boy, I've wanted to talk to you a long
time,--to talk serious. You're not one of the common kind of cattle
that think of nothin' but their fodder and stall--are you?"

Now, Sam was precisely of the breed described by his friend, but what
man ever lived who knew he was altogether ordinary? He grinned uneasily
and answered:

"I guess not."

"Exactly!" s