tement I'd got grazin' rights on Mr. McFarlane's grass--which is the
thing I came right here to yarn about when I got mixed up with that
unnatural hell, which I've learned since was only set up to amuse the
skitters. Kind o' makes me feel if I was to set fer my pictur' I'd
sure come out a shipwreck at sea, or some other darn fool kind of
unpleasantness."

Jeff was forced to echo the laugh which Dug indulged in without
restraint. It seemed cruel in face of the strange little man's serious
distress. But its only effect upon him was to produce an inquiring
glance of profound but unresentful astonishment.

"Guess I must 'a' said something," he protested mildly. "Seems to me I
most generly do, with Mr. McFarlane around." Then he smiled in his
wintry fashion, which was quite powerless to add warmth to his curious
aspect of grayness. "Guess he must ha' been born laffin'--p'raps," he
added thoughtfully. "It's a dandy thing bein' born laffin'. I don't
reckon I ever got that luck. It's more likely my moma got lost in a
fog the day I was born. Can't account noways fer things otherwise."

Dug pushed the whisky bottle at him as a set-off to his own
uncontrolled mirth, and in a few moments contrived to subdue his
paroxysms sufficiently to start the business in hand.

"Now, Masters," he said, as soon as the diminutive Elias had ministered
adequately to his glass, "we've got a curious proposition to set before
you. It's jest one of them things which crops up in a country like
this, where a whole heap o' the laws happens along through custom. An'
like all sech customs, ther's li'ble to be a tarnation lot of friction
lyin' around if we can't get a right settlement. Now, if we go to the
courts it's goin' to be a mighty big scrap, eatin' up a hell of a pile
of dollars. An' if you're wise to the ways of the law fellers you ken
just about figger the verdict is goin' to come along to the feller with
the biggest wad. In this case I guess I'm the feller with the biggest
wad. Now, ther's no sort o' bad blood between Peters an' me, 'cep' it
is he will sing hymns outrageous on a Sunday. Still, I ain't goin' to
let that cut no ice. I'm out for a square decision between us by a
feller that don't know the meanin' of graft. I don't care a cuss who
gets it. But I ain't goin' to be bluffed by any fancy legal readings
of a position by city lawyers who don't know the north end of a steer
goin' south from the cluckin' proposition of