soft body, and suddenly the portal disgorged Lee--in erratic haste. His
hat presently followed. Dazedly awhile he surveyed the grinning trio of
witnesses to his discomfiture; then, picking up his battered head-piece
he crammed it down upon his bald cranium with a vicious, yet abject,
gesture.

"Th' missis seems onwell this mornin'," he mumbled apologetically to
Slavin, "I take it yore not a married man, Sarjint?"

"Eh?" ejaculated that worthy sharply, his levity gone on the instant.
"Who--me?" Blankly he regarded the miserable face of his interlocutor,
one huge paw of a hand softly and surreptitiously caressing its fellow,
"Nay--glory be! I am not."

"Har!" shrilled the Voice, its owner, fat red arms akimbo, blocking up
the doorway, "Nick, me useless man! ye kin prate t' me 'bout arrestin'
hoboes. I tell ye right now--that hobo that was a-bummin' roun' here
t'other mornin's got nothin' on you fur sheer, blowed-in-th'-glass
laziness."

"Fwhat?" Slavin violently contorting his grim face into a horrible
semblance of persuasive gallantry edged cautiously towards the irate
dame--much the same as a rough-rider will "So, ho, now!" and sidle up to
a bad horse. "Mishtress Lee," began he, in wheedling, dulcet tones,
"fwhat mornin' was that?"

That lady, her capacious, matronly bosom heaving with emotion, eyed him
suspiciously a moment. "Eh?" she snapped. "Why th' mornin' after th'
night of racket between them two men at th' hotel. Th' feller come
bummin' roun' th' back-door fur a hand-out--all starved t' death--just
before I took th' train t' Calgary." She dabbed at the false-front of
red hair, which had become somewhat disarranged. "La, la!" she murmured,
"I'm all of a twitter!"

"Some hand-out tu," remarked Slavin politely, "from th' face av um. . . .
Fwhat was ut ye handed him, Mishtress Lee, might I ask?--th' flat-iron or
th' rollin' pin?"

"I did not!" the dame retorted indignantly. "I gave him a cup of coffee
an' sumphin' t' eat--he was that cold, poor feller--an' I arst him how
his face come t' be in such a state. He said sumphin 'bout it bein' so
cold up in th' loft he come down amongst th' horses 'bout midnight--t'
get warmed up. He said he was lyin' in one o' th' mangers asleep when a
feller brought a horse in--an' th' light woke him up an' when he went t'
climm outa th' manger th' horse got scared an' pulled back an' musta
stepped on this feller's foot--fur th' feller started swearin' at him an'