be so comfortable as the passenger; but you'll save your fare, and
you can give Andy a hand with the cattle. You've only got to have a
look at 'em every other station, and poke up any that fall down in the
trucks. You and Andy are mates, aren't you?'

I said it would just suit me. Somehow I fancied that the Boss seemed
anxious to have my company for one more evening, and, to tell the truth,
I felt really sorry to part with him. I'd had to work as hard as any
of the other chaps; but I liked him, and I believed he liked me. He'd
struck me as a man who'd been quietened down by some heavy trouble, and
I felt sorry for him without knowing what the trouble was.

'Come and have a drink, Boss,' I said. The agent had paid us off during
the day.

He turned into a hotel with me.

'I don't drink, Jack,' he said; 'but I'll take a glass with you.'

'I didn't know you were a teetotaller, Boss,' I said. I had not been
surprised at his keeping so strictly from the drink on the trip; but now
that it was over it was a different thing.

'I'm not a teetotaller, Jack,' he said. 'I can take a glass or leave
it.' And he called for a long beer, and we drank 'Here's luck!' to each
other.

'Well,' I said, 'I wish I could take a glass or leave it.' And I meant
it.

Then the Boss spoke as I'd never heard him speak before. I thought for
the moment that the one drink had affected him; but I understood before
the night was over. He laid his hand on my shoulder with a grip like a
man who has suddenly made up his mind to lend you five pounds. 'Jack!'
he said, 'there's worse things than drinking, and there's worse things
than heavy smoking. When a man who smokes gets such a load of trouble on
him that he can find no comfort in his pipe, then it's a heavy load.
And when a man who drinks gets so deep into trouble that he can find no
comfort in liquor, then it's deep trouble. Take my tip for it, Jack.'

He broke off, and half turned away with a jerk of his head, as if
impatient with himself; then presently he spoke in his usual quiet
tone--

'But you're only a boy yet, Jack. Never mind me. I won't ask you to take
the second drink. You don't want it; and, besides, I know the signs.'

He paused, leaning with both hands on the edge of the counter, and
looking down between his arms at the floor. He stood that way thinking
for a while; then he suddenly straightened up, like a man who'd made up
his mind to something.

'I want you to come along home