arn, Warren? I
haven't opened my head about it to any living soul--not even a nigger."

The other smiled knowingly.

"There's very little I don't get hold of, old chap. What if Le Sage
told me himself?"

"Did he?"

"Yes. He abused you so infernally that I had to tell him to stop--
reminding him you were a pal of mine. Then he abused me, but that I
didn't mind. We do a lot of business together. You can stand a good
deal from anybody on those terms."

"I suppose so. I like Le Sage and don't bear any grudge against him,
though for a day or two after I did feel rather sore. He lost his
temper a bit, and I felt sorry for him, because losing one's temper
takes it out of one so. I know it does out of me when I lose mine."

Warren roared.

"When you lose yours! Why, you never do."

"Don't I? But it's a most infernal weakness. You are sure to come out
bottom dog if you do."

"That's about it. Have another drink? No? Sure? Well, then, old man,
come out with me to my place for the night. What do you say? We can
have a good old yarn, and we shan't have many more of them if you're
trekking."

"All right. I will."

"That's good. Now look here. I've got about an hour's business to
tackle, then you romp back here, and we'll ride out together. No. I
won't ask you to take a cut in at _ecarte_. I know you hate the sight
of a pack of cards as dourly as any Covenanting Presbyterian
`meenister.'"

"Well, I do," laughed Wyvern, "but not for the same reason. The evening
isn't the time for mathematical calculation. It's the time for yarning
and pipes, and conviviality in general. All right. In an hour, then.
So long."

Warren ran a bachelor establishment some seven miles out of Gydisdorp.
It was, in fact a fine farm, but he was interested in it mainly as a
game preserve; the fanning department he turned over to an overseer "on
the halves." Not that he was ignorant on that side either, for he
exacted his full share of what was yielded by the capabilities of the
place. Here he was wont to entertain his friends, and comparatively
high play was frequently the order of the evening; indeed it was
whispered that it constituted a material addition to his store, both in
currency and landed estate. He did neither at Wyvern's expense,
however, for the latter declared, once and for all, that he had nothing
to lose, and in the next place the whole thing bored him beyond words.

So when Wyvern returned an ho