r
advantage, for he began prodding the donkey with a conscientious
absorption that filled that small brute with amazement, and made him
amble from one side of the road to the other, in a vain endeavor to look
around his pack and discover the reason for this unexpected turn in the
administration of affairs.

Lysander watched their approach with an expression of amused contempt.
The traveler started, in a clumsy attempt at surprise, when he was
opposite his son-in-law, and, giving the donkey a parting whack that
sent him and his hardware onward at a literally rattling pace, turned
from the road, and sidled doggedly through the tarweed toward the
stone-pile.

Lysander folded his arms, and surveyed him in a cool, sidelong way that
was peculiarly withering.

"Well," he said, with a caustic downward inflection,--"well, it's you,
is it?"

The newcomer admitted the gravity of the charge by an appealing droop of
his whole person.

"Yes," he answered humbly, "it's me,--an' I didn't want to come. I vum I
didn't. But Forrester made me. He 'lowed you wouldn't hev no objections
to my comin'--on business."

He braced himself on the last two words, and made a feeble effort to
look his son-in-law in the face. What he saw there was not encouraging.
It became audible in a sniff of undisguised contempt.

"Where'd you see Forrester?"

"At the winery. Ye see I was a-goin' over to the Duarte, an' I stopped
at the winery"--

"What'd you stop at the winery fer?" interrupted the younger man
savagely.

"Why, I tole ye,--Forrester wanted to see me _on business_. I stopped to
see Forrester, Lysander. What else'd I stop fer? I was in a big hurry,
too, an' I vum I hated to stop, but I hed to. When a man like Forrester
wants to see you"--

"How'd you know he wanted to see you?" demanded Sproul.

The old man gave his questioner a look of maudlin surprise.

"Why, he tole me so hisself; how else'd I find it out? I was a-settin'
there in the winery on a kaig, an' he come an' tole me he wanted to see
me _on business_. 'Pears to me you're duller 'n common, Lysander." The
speaker began to gather courage from his own ready comprehension of
intricacies which evidently seemed to puzzle his son-in-law. "Why,
sho,--yes, Lysander, don't ye see?" he added encouragingly.

"Oh, yes, I see,--I see," repeated Lysander sarcastically. "It's as
clear as mud. Now, look here," he added, turning upon his visitor
sternly, "you let Forrester alone. You don'