?" he burst out, with indignant rage.

"Me?" Zephyr turned to Hartwell, releasing his lips from their habitual
pucker, his eyes resting for a moment on Hartwell. "Oh, I ain't much. I
ain't a sack of fertilizer on a thousand-acre ranch." His eyes drooped
indifferently. "But at the same time, you ain't no thousand-acre ranch."

"That may be," retorted Hartwell; "but I'm too large to make it safe for
you to prance around on alone."

Zephyr turned languidly to Hartwell.

"That's so," he assented. "I discovered a similar truth several decades
ago and laid it up for future use. Even in my limited experience you
ain't the first thorn-apple that I've seen pears grafted on to. In
recognition of your friendly warning, allow me to say that I'm only one
in a bunch."

A further exchange of courtesies was prevented by the entrance of four
men, of whom Bennie was one. Their entrance was heralded by a series of
bumps and grunts. There was a final bump, a final grunt, and the four
men straightened simultaneously; four bended arms swept the moisture
from four perspiring faces.

"That's all." Bennie dismissed his helpers with a wave of his hand, then
stood grimly repressed, waiting for the next move.

The scene was mildly theatrical; unintentionally so, so far as Zephyr
was concerned, designedly so on the part of Bennie, who longed to push
it to a most thrilling climax. It was not pleasant to Firmstone; but the
cause was none of his creating, he was of no mind to interfere with the
event. He was only human after all, and that it annoyed and irritated
Hartwell afforded him a modicum of legitimate solace. Besides, Zephyr
and Bennie were his stanch friends; the recovery of the safe and the
putting it in evidence at the most effective moment was their work. The
manner of bringing it into play, though distasteful to him, suited their
ideas of propriety, and Firmstone felt that they had earned the right to
an exhibition of their personalities with no interference on his part.
He preserved a passive, dignified silence.

As for Hartwell, openly attacked from without, within a no less violent
conflict of invisible forces was crowding him to self-humiliation. To
retreat from the scene meant either an open confession of wrong-doing,
or a refusal on his part to do justice to the man whom he had wronged.
To remain was to subject himself to the open triumph of Zephyr and
Bennie, and the no less assured though silent triumph of Firmstone.

Har