by the hair of the head. He had been restored to consciousness on the
bank and carried to his home, where he lay ill for days. During the
course of the slight fever which followed the accident his hair was cut
close to his head. Impetuous always, his first thought was to go and
thank Constantine Jopp for having saved his life. As soon as he was able
he went forth to find his rescuer, and met him suddenly on turning a
corner of the street. Before he could stammer out the gratitude that was
in his heart, Jopp, eyeing him with a sneering smile, said drawlingly:

"If you'd had your hair cut like that I couldn't have got you out, could
I? Holy, what a sight! Next time I'll take you by the scruff, putty-
face--bah!"

That was enough for Terry. He had swallowed the insult, stuttered his
thanks to the jeering laugh of the lank bully, and had gone home and
cried in shame and rage.

It was the one real shadow in his life. Ill luck and good luck had been
taken with an equable mind; but the fact that he must, while he lived,
own the supreme debt of his life to a boy and afterwards to a man whom he
hated by instinct was a constant cloud on him. Jopp owned him. For some
years they did not meet, and then at last they again were thrown together
in the West, when Jopp settled at La Touche. It was gall and wormwood to
Terry, but he steeled himself to be friendly, although the man was as
great a bully as the boy, as offensive in mind and character; but withal
acute and able in his way, and with a reputation for commercial sharpness
which would be called by another name in a different civilisation. They
met constantly, and O'Ryan always put a hand on himself, and forced
himself to be friendly. Once when Jopp became desperately ill there had
been--though he fought it down, and condemned himself in every term of