, one in each hand, and brought their heads together with a
crash which the barkeeper described afterwards as "splendiferous."
With an amazing display of physical violence, he flung them apart,
each falling in a crumpled heap of profanity upon the floor.

"Don't fool with that feller," was the verdict in the foothills.

The affair would have been of no consequence had not Jim been present
when the row took place. Jim might have played the _beau role_
had he carried a pistol. Admittedly he would have been licked in a
fight with either cowboy singly. Thorpe, so I was told, entreated Jim
to keep the story from his wife. Angela had it, with slight
exaggeration, from the hero-worshipper's lips within an hour. "It
brought her heart into her mouth, I tell you," the simple fellow told
Ajax, and later Ajax murmured to me: "I wonder whether it struck
Angela that Jim would have tackled both of 'em, if Thorpe had not
interfered."

A dozen trifles hardly worth recording emphasised the difference
between Jim and his greatest pal. Thorpe mastered the colt which had
thrown Jim; Thorpe, when fresh meat was wanted, killed handsomely the
fat buck missed by the over-eager James; Thorpe made a pretty profit
over a hog deal at the psychological moment when poor Misterton
allowed three Poland-China sows to escape through an improperly
constructed fence!

Thorpe was a man. Did Angela think of Jim as a mouse?

* * * * *

After the fall round-up, Ajax and I spent a month fishing in British
Columbia. When we got back to the ranch, one of the first to greet us
happened to be Jim Misterton. He looked so pale and thin that I
thought for a moment his old enemy had attacked him. However, he
assured us that he was perfectly well, but unable to sleep properly.
We asked him to stay to supper, rather as a matter of form, for he had
always refused our invitations unless Angela were included. To our
surprise he accepted.

"He'll uncork himself after the second pipe," said the sage Ajax.

He did. And, oddly enough, our cousin's photograph in Court dress
moved him as it had moved his wife.

"Boys," he said, "I'm the biggest fool that ever came to this burnt-up
wilderness; and I'm a knave because I persuaded the sweetest girl in
England to join me."

Oil may calm troubled waters, but it feeds flames. We said something,
nothing worth repeating; then Jim stood up, trembling with agitation,
waving his briar pipe (which had gon