ily, "I've tho't a
crateful sence we wus yarnin' last night, I guess. Don't git shuvin'
Jake too close agin the wall. Give him your yarn easy. Kind o' talk
han'some by him. He's goin' to figger this thing out fer us. He'll git
givin' us a lead, mebbe, when he ain't calc'latin' to. Savee?"

Tresler didn't answer at once; in fact, he didn't quite see the old
man's point. He completed his toilet by buckling on his belt and
revolver. Then he prepared to depart.

"We'll see. I intend to be governed by circumstances," he said
quietly.

"Jest so. An' circumstances has the way o' governin' most things,
anyways. Guess I'm jest astin' you to rub the corners off'n them
circumstances so they'll run smooth."

Tresler smiled at the manner of the old man's advice, which was plain
enough this time.

"I see. Well, so long."

He hurried out and Joe watched him go. Then the little man rose from
his seat and went out to Teddy Jinks's kitchen on the pretense of
yarning. In reality he knew that the foreman's hut was in full view
from the kitchen window.

Tresler walked briskly across to the hut. He never in his life felt
more ready to meet Jake than he did at this moment. He depended on the
outcome of this interview for the whole of his future course. He did
not attempt to calculate the possible result. He felt that to do so
would be to cramp his procedure. He meant to work on his knowledge of
his rival's character. Herein lay his hopes of success. It was Joe who
had given him his cue. "It's the most dangerousest thing to hit a
'rattler' till you've got him good an' riled," the little man had once
said. "Then he lifts an' it's dead easy, I guess. Hit him lyin', an'
ef you don't kill him, ther's goin' to be trouble. Them critters has a
way of thinkin' hard an' quick or'nary." And Tresler meant to deal
with Jake in a similar manner. The rest must be left to the
circumstances they had discussed.

It so happened that Jake, too, was late abed that morning. Tresler
found him just finishing the breakfast Jinks had brought him. Jake's
surly "Come in," in response to his knock, brought him face to face
with the last man he desired to see in his hut at that moment. And
Tresler almost laughed aloud as the great man sprang from the table,
nearly overturning it in his angry haste.

"It's all right, Jake," he said with a smile, "I come in peace."

And the other stood for a moment eyeing him fiercely, yet not knowing
quite how to take him. Wi