ers of his mouth.

"You've ce'tainly begun your practice on a disreputable patient, Doctor
Sanderson. I haven't had time to comb my hair since that little seance
with your friends. We sure did have a sociable time. They're all good
mixers." He looked into the long glass opposite, laughed at sight of his
swollen face, then rattled into a misquotation of some verses he
remembered:

"There's many a black black eye, they say, but none so bright as mine;
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May."

"Put the water and things down on that table, Becky," her mistress told
her, ignoring the man's blithe folly.

"I'm giving you lots of chances to do the Good Samaritan act," he
continued. "Honest, I hate to be so much trouble. You'll have to blame
Mr. Healy. He's the responsible party for these little accidents of
mine."

"I'm going to be responsible for one more," the stockman told him
darkly.

"I understand your intentions are good, but I've noticed that sometimes
expectation outruns performance," his prisoner came back promptly.

"Not this time, I think."

Phyllis understood that Brill was threatening the nester and that the
latter was defying him lightly, but what either meant precisely she did
not know. She proceeded to business without a word except the necessary
directions to Becky. Not until the arm was dressed and the wound on the
head washed and bandaged did she address Keller.

"I'll send you a powder that will help you get to sleep. The doctor left
it here for Phil, and he did not need it," she said.

"Mebbe I won't need it, either." Keller laughed hardily, at his enemy it
seemed to the girl, and with some hint of a sinister understanding
between them from which she was excluded. "Thanks just the same, for
that and for everything else you've done for me."

Phyllis said "Good night" stiffly, and followed the old negress out. She
went directly to her bedroom, but not to sleep. The night was hot, and
it had been to her a day full of excitement. She had much to think of.
Going to the open window, she sat down in a low chair with her arms
across the sill.

Two men met beneath her window.

"Gimme the makings, Slim," one said to the other.

While he was shaking the tobacco from the pouch to the paper, Slim
spoke. "The boys ought all to be here in another hour, Budd. After that,
it won't take us long."

"Not long," the fat man answered uneasily.

There was a silence. Slim b