ns of
mirth on the faces of the others as well; for Slim's grievances never
seemed to be taken seriously by his companions--which is the price
which one must pay for having a body shaped like Santa Claus and a
face copied after our old friend in the moon.

"Well, by golly, maybe it's funny--but I took notice yuh done some
yowling, both uh yuh, the other day when yuh didn't get no pie," he
snorted, lighting his cigarette with unsteady fingers.

"We wasn't laughing at that," lied Pink pacifically.

"And then, by golly, the old devil lied to me and said there wasn't no
pie left," went on Slim complainingly, his memory stirred by the taunt
he had himself given. "But I wouldn't take his word for a thing if I
knew it was so; I went on a still-hunt around that tent on my own
hook, and I found a pie--a _whole pie_, by golly!--cached away under
an empty flour-sack behind the stove! That," he added, staring,
round-eyed, at the group, "that there was right where me and Patsy
mixed. The lying old devil said he never knew a thing about it being
there at all."

Pink turned his head cautiously so that his eyes met the eyes of Andy
Green. The two had been at some pains to place that pie in a safe
place so that they might be sure of something appetizing when they
came in from standing guard that night, but neither seemed to think it
necessary to proclaim the fact and clear Patsy.

"I'll bet yuh didn't do a thing to the pie when yuh did find it?" Pink
half questioned, more anxious than he would have owned.

"By golly, I eat the whole thing and I cussed Patsy between every
mouthful!" boasted Slim, almost in a good-humor again. "I sure got the
old boy stirred up; I left him swearin' Dutch cuss-words that sounded
like he was peevish. But I'll betche he won't throw out the coffee
till I've had what I want after this, by golly!"

"Happy Jack is out yet," Weary observed after a sympathetic silence.
"You oughtn't to have put Patsy on the fight till everybody was filled
up, Slim. Happy's liable to go to bed with an empty tummy, if yuh
don't ride out and warn him to approach easy. Listen over there!"

From where they lay, so still was the air and so incensed was Patsy,
they could hear plainly the rumbling of his wrath while he talked to
himself over the dishwashing. When he appeared at the corner of the
tent or plodded out toward the front of the wagon, his heavy tread and
stiff neck proclaimed eloquently the mood he was in. They watched