and he plowed
(?) each furrow with a collection of forceful admonitions, delivered in
a voice of thunder, from a different language. It was all the same to
Lizzie! She loathed plowing just as thoroughly in wildcat Spanish, as
she did in Dutch or Cingalese, and she did not hesitate to prove it.

Jim Hutch and Jimmie Greeley drifted down to Rattlesnake at sundown and
joined the laughter-weakened group perched upon Charlie's snake fence.

"The man grows more daft every year. 'Tis strange, what charms the Widow
Schmitt." Old Jimmie merely growled in his beard. "Charlie, mon," he
called, "the mare is warm and weary, and so's yoursel'. Come on to town
for a bit."

Charlie stayed overlong at the miners' haunts in Rattlesnake and it was
very late when he started back to his cabin, carrying in one limp, hot
hand a jug which he guarded zealously from harm during his unsteady
progress.

The men still sat over the card tables when the first daylight crept
over the mountains. Jimmie Greeley was raking in a jackpot, grinning
fiendishly at the dour Jim Hutch when they heard heavy, running feet
outside. The door crashed open and a frightened, half-grown lad shouted:

"Where's the sheriff? Charlie Price has been hung!"

"What!"

"On a tree near the Widow Schmitt's. I saw him. I know well the sailor
coat that he wears--and his best red-topped boots. Where's the sheriff?"

"Over at Ah Quong's, the Chinee store on the edge of town." The boy ran
off. Old Jim Hutch rose impressively to his feet.

"Friends, the man ye hae laughed at all day--is dead. The man ye hae
always laughed at--and yet, WHO was it that lent ye gold when ye had
none? Yea, the gold ye thought it not worth ye'r while to return. Who
was ever ready to warm you at his bit fire in winter or to cool ye're
whuskey-hot throat with water from his cool spring in summer?

"Who was it that brought his mare into his own kitchen when it snowed,
and fed her the rice and beans he went without? Who was it that the
Widow Schmitt waits for year after year, with half the ould fools in
Placer dancin' after her?"

That was too much for old man Greeley.

"Because he was indifferent-like. When ye want a woman, run away
f-r-r-om her and she'll run after."

"Why did ye na do it, then, Jeems?"

"Faith an' I did, but bein' ahl dressed up as I was in me coat, she
couldn't see me suspenders to tell was I comin' or goin'!" Jim Hutch
turned from him witheringly.

"Who was it staked y