hat you are sure to lose in
the end?"

"Yeah," said Noah, wearily. "You're sure to die in the end, too; but
that don't keep you from goin' on tryin' every day to make a livin' and
have a little fun. It's all a game, and the old man with the mowin'
blade has the last call."

"But," persisted Bob, "when you earn a thing and get what you earn, it
is really yours, and has a value and gives a pleasure that you can't
get out of money that comes any other way."

"Don't you believe it," Noah shook his head lugubriously. "The easier
money comes the more I enjoy it. Only it don't never come. It goes.
This here gamblin' business reminds me of an old dominecker hen we used
to have. That hen produced an awful lot of cackle but mighty few eggs.
It is what my dad would have called the shadow without the substance.
But your blamed old tractor gives me a durned lot more substance than I
yearn for."

They were still pushing among the jostling crowd. There were more than
a thousand men in the hall--and a few women. Soiled Mexicans passed
through the jostle with trays on their heads selling sandwiches and
bananas. Fragments of meat and bread and banana peelings were
scattered upon the sawdust floor. It was a grimy scene. And yet Bob
still acknowledged the tremendous pull of it--the raw, quick action of
the stuff that life and death are made of.

Noah nudged Bob and nodded significantly toward the bar, where Reedy
with his three friends and two or three Mexicans, including Madrigal,
were drinking.

"He's cookin' up something agin you," said Noah in a low tone. "Better
go over and talk to him. He's gettin' full enough to spill some of it."

Bob took the suggestion and sauntered over toward the bar. As he
approached, Reedy turned around and nodded blinkingly at him.

"Say," Reedy leaned his elbows on the bar and spoke in a propitiatory
tone, "I'sh sorry you went off in such a huff. Right good fello', I
understand. If you'd asked me, I'd saved you lot of trouble and money
on that lease." Reedy stopped to hiccough. "Even now, take your lease
off your hands at half what it cost."

"So?" Bob smiled sarcastically.

"Well, hell," Reedy was nettled at the lack of appreciation of his
generosity, "that's a good deal better than nothing."

"My lease is not on the market," Bob replied, dryly.

"Now look here!" Reedy half closed his plump eyes and nodded
knowingly. "'Course you are goin' to sell--I got to have four mor