ears
they did not meet, and then at last they again were thrown together in the
West, when Jopp settled at La Touche. It was gall and wormwood to Terry,
but he steeled himself to be friendly, although the man was as great a
bully as the boy, as offensive in mind and character; but withal acute and
able in his way, and with a reputation for commercial sharpness which
would be called by another name in a different civilization. They met
constantly, and O'Ryan always put a hand on himself, and forced himself to
be friendly. Once when Jopp became desperately ill there had been--though
he fought it down, and condemned himself in every term of reproach--a
sense of relief in the thought that perhaps his ancient debt would now be
cancelled. It had gone on so long. And Constantine Jopp had never lost an
opportunity of vexing him, of turturing him, of giving veiled thrusts,
which he knew O'Ryan could not resent. It was the constant pin-prick of a
mean soul, who had an advantage of which he could never be
dispossessed--unless the ledger was balanced in some inscrutable way.

Apparently bent on amusement only, and hiding his hatred from his
colleagues, Jopp had been the instigator and begetter of the huge joke of
the play; but it was the brains of Dick Fergus which had carried it out,
written the dialogue, and planned the electric appliances of the back
curtain--for he was an engineer and electrician. Neither he nor Holden had
known the old antipathy of Terry and Constantine Jopp. There was only one
man who knew the whole truth, and that was Gow Johnson, to whom Terry had
once told all. At the last moment Fergus had interpolated certain points
in the dialogue which were not even included at rehearsal. These referred
to Apollo. He had a shrewd notion that Jopp had an idea of marrying Molly
Mackinder if he could, cousins though they were; and he was also aware
that Jopp, knowing Molly's liking for Terry, had tried to poison her mind
against him, through suggestive gossip about a little widow at Jansen,
thirty miles away. He had in so far succeeded that, on the very day of the
performance, Molly had declined to be driven home from the race-course by
Terry, despite the fact that Terry had won the chief race and owned the
only dog-cart in the West.

As the day went on, Fergus realized, as had Gow Johnson, that Jopp had
raised a demon. The air was electric. The play was drawing near to its
climax--an attempt to capture the deputy-sheriff