it his cigar
in two.

While he was grabbing and wrenching at the buggy-top, the water from
his hat brim dripping down upon his nose, the horse, restive under the
drench of the rain, moved uneasily.

"Yah-h-h you!" he shouted, inarticulate with exasperation.
"You--you--Gor-r-r, wait till I get hold of you. WHOA, you!"

But there was an interruption. Delaney, riding the buckskin, came around
a bend in the road at a slow trot and Annixter, getting into the buggy
again, found himself face to face with him.

"Why, hello, Mr. Annixter," said he, pulling up. "Kind of sort of wet,
isn't it?"

Annixter, his face suddenly scarlet, sat back in his place abruptly,
exclaiming:

"Oh--oh, there you are, are you?"

"I've been down there," explained Delaney, with a motion of his head
toward the railroad, "to mend that break in the fence by the Long
Trestle and I thought while I was about it I'd follow down along the
fence toward Guadalajara to see if there were any more breaks. But I
guess it's all right."

"Oh, you guess it's all right, do you?" observed Annixter through his
teeth.

"Why--why--yes," returned the other, bewildered at the truculent ring
in Annixter's voice. "I mended that break by the Long Trestle just now
and----

"Well, why didn't you mend it a week ago?" shouted Annixter wrathfully.
"I've been looking for you all the morning, I have, and who told you you
could take that buckskin? And the sheep were all over the right of way
last night because of that break, and here that filthy pip, S. Behrman,
comes down here this morning and wants to make trouble for me." Suddenly
he cried out, "What do I FEED you for? What do I keep you around here
for? Think it's just to fatten up your carcass, hey?"

"Why, Mr. Annixter----" began Delaney.

"And don't TALK to me," vociferated the other, exciting himself with his
own noise. "Don't you say a word to me even to apologise. If I've spoken
to you once about that break, I've spoken fifty times."

"Why, sir," declared Delaney, beginning to get indignant, "the sheep did
it themselves last night."

"I told you not to TALK to me," clamoured Annixter.

"But, say, look here----"

"Get off the ranch. You get off the ranch. And taking that buckskin
against my express orders. I won't have your kind about the place,
not much. I'm easy-going enough, Lord knows, but I don't propose to be
imposed on ALL the time. Pack off, you understand and do it lively. Go
to the foreman and