and
listened and were secretly rather glad they were fed and so need not
face the storm which Slim had raised; for Patsy thoroughly roused was
very much like an angry bull: till his rage cooled he would charge
whoever approached him, absolutely blind to consequences.

"Well, I ain't going to put nobody next," Slim asserted. "Happy's got
to take chances, same as I did. And while we're on the subject, Patsy
was on the prod before I struck camp, or he wouldn't uh acted the way
he done. Somebody else riled him up, by golly--I never."

"Well, you sure did put the finishing touches to him," contended
Irish, guiltily aware that he himself was originally responsible; for
Patsy never had liked Irish very well because of certain incidents
connected with his introduction to Weary's double. Patsy never could
quite forget, though he might forgive, and resentment lay always close
to the surface of his mood when Irish was near.

Happy Jack, hungry and quite unconscious that he was riding straight
into the trail of trouble, galloped around a ragged point of
service-berry bushes, stopped with a lurch at the prostrate corral and
unsaddled hastily. Those in the shade of the willow watched him, their
very silence proclaiming loudly their interest. They might have warned
him by a word, but they did not; for Happy Jack was never eager to
heed warnings or to take advice, preferring always to abide by the
rule of opposites. Stiff-legged from long riding, the knees of his
old, leather chaps bulging out in transient simulation of bowed limbs,
he came clanking down upon the cook-tent with no thought but to ease
his hunger.

Those who watched saw him stoop and thrust his head into the tent,
heard a bellow and saw him back out hastily. They chuckled unfeelingly
and strained ears to miss no word of what would follow.

"Aw, gwan!" Happy Jack expostulated, not yet angry. "I got here quick
as I could--and _I_ ain't heard nothing about no new laws uh getting
here when the whistle blows. Gimme what there is, anyhow."

Some sentences followed which, because of guttural tones and German
accent emphasized by excitement, were not quite coherent to the
listeners. However, they did not feel at all mystified as to his
meaning--knowing Patsy as they did.

"Aw, come off! Somebody must uh slipped yuh a two-gallon jug uh
something. I've rode the range about as long as you've cooked on it,
and I never knowed a man to go without his supper yet, just because