"Anybody in your light, you think? Hullo there, Dutchy, swei glass. Any
other fellow takin' your wind?" and his furtive eyes darted a keen
interrogation. Sam did not answer at once, and his friend went on:
"Why, she don't hardly know anybody but me and you, and, he-he! I
wouldn't stand no chance at all against you--hum?"

"Of course you wouldn't," said Sam, with slow contempt, which brought
the muddy blood into the sallow cheek in front of him. "She wouldn't
look at you. I'm not afraid of no man, Andy Offitt,--I'm afraid of
money."

He flattered his jealous heart by these words. It was too intolerable
to think that any mere man should take his sweetheart away from him;
and though he felt how hopeless was any comparison between himself and
Farnham, he tried to soothe himself by the lie that they were equal in
all but money.

His words startled his friend Offitt. He exclaimed, "Why, who does she
know that's got money?"

But Sleeny felt a momentary revolt against delivering to even his
closest confidant the name of the woman he loved coupled with the
degrading suspicions by which he had been tormented all day. He gruffly
answered: "That's none of your business; you can't help me in this
thing, and I ain't agoin' to chin about it any more."

They sat for awhile in silence, drank their beer, and ordered more.
Offitt at last spoke again:

"Well, I'll be hanged if you ain't the best grit of any fellow I know.