el of his saddle and deep in meditation. Jeb
stepped out into the road and the hidden men craned their necks from
the bushes with eyes and ears alert.

"Good mornin', Parson Small!" The old nag stopped and the parson's
head snapped up from his revery.

"Good mornin', Jeb Mullins." The parson's greeting was stern and
somewhat uneasy, for he did not like the look on old Jeb's face.

"Parson Small," said Jeb unctuously, "las' Sunday was _yo'_ day." The
men in the bushes thrust themselves farther out--they could hear every
word--"an' this Sunday is _mine_."

"Every Sunday is the Lawd's, Jeb Mullins--profane it not."

"Well, mebbe He'll loan me this un, parson. You lambasted me afore all
Happy Valley last Sunday an' now I'm a-goin' to lick you fer it." The
parson's eye gleamed faintly and subsided.

"I'm on my way to preach the word of God, Jeb Mullins."

"You'll git thar in time, parson. Git off yo' hoss!"

"I've got my broadcloth on, Jeb Mullins, an' I don't want to muss it
up--wait till I come back."

"You can take it off, parson, or brush off the dust atterwards--climb
off yo' hoss." Again the parson's eye gleamed and this time did not
subside.

"I reckon you'll give me time to say a prayer, Jeb Mullins!"

"Shore--you'll need it afore I git through with ye."

With a sigh the parson swung offside from Jeb, dexterously pulling a
jackknife from his trousers-pocket, opening it, and thrusting it in the
high top of his right boot. Then he kneeled in the road with uplifted
face and eyes closed:

[Illustration]

"O Lawd," he called sonorously, "thou knowest that I visit my fellow man
with violence only with thy favor and in thy name. Thou knowest that when
I laid Jim Thompson an' Si Marcum in thar graves it was by thy aid. Thou
knowest how I disembowelled with my trusty knife the miserable sinner
Hank Smith." Here the parson drew out his knife and began honing it on
the leg of his boot. "An' hyeh's another who meddles with thy servant and
profanes thy day. I know this hyeh Jeb Mullins is offensive in thy sight
an' fergive me, O Lawd, but I'm a-goin' to cut his gizzard plum' out, an'
O Lawd--" Here Parson Small opened one eye and Jeb Mullins did not stand
on the order of his going. As he went swiftly up the hill the committee
sprang from the bushes with haw-haws and taunting yells. At the top of
the hill Jeb turned:

"I was a-goin' anyhow," he shouted, and with his thumb at his nose he
wriggled his fingers at t