in a defiant manner, 'drop these personalities and come to business;
what's to be done? Vandeloup is firmly established there, but
there's not the slightest chance of my wife falling in love with
him.'

'Wait,' said Slivers, stolidly wagging his wooden leg up and down;
'wait, you blind fool, wait.'

'Wait for the waggon!' shrieked Billy, behind, and then supplemented
his remarks by adding, 'Oh, my precious mother!' as he climbed up on
Slivers' shoulder.

'You always say wait,' growled Villiers, not paying any attention to
Billy's interruption; 'I tell you we can't wait much longer; they'll
drop on the Devil's Lead shortly, and then we'll be up a tree.'

'Then, suppose you go out to the Pactolus and see your wife,'
suggested Slivers.

'No go,' returned Villiers, gloomily, 'she'd break my head.'

'Bah! you ain't afraid of a woman, are you?' snarled Slivers,
viciously.

'No, but I am of McIntosh and the rest of them,' retorted Villiers.
'What can one man do against twenty of these devils. Why, they'd
kill me if I went out there; and that infernal wife of mine wouldn't
raise her little finger to save me.'

'You're a devil!' observed Billy, eyeing Villiers from his perch on