of his flannel shirt, and meditatively began to unroll
his damp and mud-soaked sleeve. "I guess I'll quit now!" he said.

The answer was not the one Caldwell expected or desired. As an
employee of the company Roddy was not important, but what he was doing
as an individual, which had so greatly excited Vega, was apparently
of much importance. And what it might be Sam Caldwell was anxious to
discover. He had enjoyed his moment of triumph and now adopted a tone
more conciliatory.

"There's no use getting hot about it," he urged. "Better think it
over."

Roddy nodded, and started to leave the wheel-house.

"Have thought it over," he said.

As Caldwell saw it, Roddy was acting from pique and in the belief that
his father would continue to supply him with funds. This Caldwell knew
was not the intention of Mr. Forrester. He had directed Caldwell to
inform Roddy that if he deliberately opposed him he must not only seek
work elsewhere, but that he did not think he should continue to ask
his father for support. Caldwell proceeded to make this quite plain to
Roddy, but, except that the color in his face deepened and that his
jaw set more firmly, Roddy made no sign.

"Very well, then," concluded Caldwell, "you leave me no other course
than to carry out your father's direction. I'll give you a month's
wages and pay your passage-money home."

"I'm not going home," returned Roddy, "and I don't want any money I
haven't worked for. The company isn't discharging me," he added with
a grin, "as it would a cook. I am discharging the company."

"I warn you your father won't stand for it," protested Caldwell.

Roddy turned back, and in a serious tone, and emphasizing his words
with a pointed forefinger, spoke earnestly.

"Sam," he said, "I give you my word, father is in wrong. _You_ are in
wrong. You're both backing the wrong stable. When this row starts your
man Vega won't run one, two, three."

"You mean Rojas?" said Caldwell.

"I mean Rojas," replied Roddy. "And if you and father had trusted me I
could have told you so three months ago. It would have saved you a lot
of money. It isn't too late even now. You'd better listen to me."

Caldwell laughed comfortably.

"Rojas is a back number," he said. "He's an old man, and a dead one.
And besides--" He hesitated and glanced away.

"Well?" demanded Roddy.

"And, besides," continued Caldwell slowly, picking his words, "Vega is
going to marry his daughter, and so we win both w