ten fool dance. Clutter the whole place up
with a lot of feemales. I sure did lose my presence of mind when I got
THAT idea."

Then, ignoring the fact that it was he, himself, who had called the
young men to him, he added:

"Well, this is my busy day. Sorry I can't stop and talk to you longer."

He shouted a last imprecation at the Chinaman and turned back into the
barn. Presley and Vanamee went on, but Annixter, as he crossed the floor
of the barn, all but collided with Hilma Tree, who came out from one of
the stalls, a box of candles in her arms.

Gasping out an apology, Annixter reentered the harness room, closing the
door behind him, and forgetting all the responsibility of the moment,
lit a cigar and sat down in one of the hired chairs, his hands in his
pockets, his feet on the table, frowning thoughtfully through the blue
smoke.

Annixter was at last driven to confess to himself that he could not get
the thought of Hilma Tree out of his mind. Finally she had "got a hold
on him." The thing that of all others he most dreaded had happened. A
feemale girl had got a hold on him, and now there was no longer for him
any such thing as peace of mind. The idea of the young woman was with
him continually. He went to bed with it; he got up with it. At every
moment of the day he was pestered with it. It interfered with his work,
got mixed up in his business. What a miserable confession for a man to
make; a fine way to waste his time. Was it possible that only the other
day he had stood in front of the music store in Bonneville and seriously
considered making Hilma a present of a music-box? Even now, the very
thought of it made him flush with shame, and this after she had told
him plainly that she did not like him. He was running after her--he,
Annixter! He ripped out a furious oath, striking the table with his boot
heel. Again and again he had resolved to put the whole affair from out
his mind. Once he had been able to do so, but of late it was becoming
harder and harder with every successive day. He had only to close his
eyes to see her as plain as if she stood before him; he saw her in a
glory of sunlight that set a fine tinted lustre of pale carnation and
gold on the silken sheen of her white skin, her hair sparkled with it,
her thick, strong neck, sloping to her shoulders with beautiful, full
curves, seemed to radiate the light; her eyes, brown, wide, innocent
in expression, disclosing the full disc of the pupil upon