below his own bass. Either the look of the stocky catapult, as he
launched himself on the fleeing servant, or the invidious servility
of the innkeeper, sobered the landlord, and he answered gravely:

"No, sir; I reckon you're mistaken. I ain't observed anything
frivolous yet."

"Glad of it," said the little man. "I don't like a feller to hog a
joke all by himself. Some of the Bar X boys took to absorbin' humour
out of my shape when I first went to work, but they're sort of
educated out of it now. I got an eye from one and a finger off of
another; the last one donated a ear."

Bailey readily conceived this man as a bad antagonist, for the heavy
corded neck had split buttons from the blue shirt, and he glimpsed a
chest hairy, and round as a drum, while the brown arms showed knotty
and hardened.

"Let's liquor," he said, and led the way into the big, low room,
serving as bar, dining- and living-room. From the rear came vicious
clatterings and slammings of pots, mingled with Oriental
lamentations, indicating an aching body rather than a chastened
spirit.

"Don't see you often," he continued, with a touch of implied
curiosity, which grew as his guest, with lingering fondness, up-ended
a glass brimful of the raw, fiery spirits.

"No, the old man don't lemme get away much. He knows that dwellin'
close to the ground, as I do, I pine for spiritual elevation," with a