had been swelteringly hot, yet the desert had been
swept with counteracting breezes, and, with night
finally descending, he had felt more than ever
his fine mettle, and now, even though his master
was painfully dismounting, he felt fit to run his
legs off at the least suggestion.

This fitness remained with him. When his
young master turned him loose at the end of a
generous tether, he stepped eagerly away from the
firelight and out into the light of a rising moon,
not to graze, for he felt no desire to graze, having
eaten his fill and more at noon, but to give vent
to his high spirits in unusual rolling in the sands.
This he quickly proceeded to do, kicking and
thrashing about, and holding to it long after the
men about the fire had ceased to come and go in
preparing their meal, long after they had seated
themselves in the cheerful glow, smoking and talking
as was their habit.

The Professor noticed it. He looked at the
man with the beard pointedly. "That Pat boss??
he's workin' up another job o' cleanin' for you,"
he observed. "Seemed in an awful hurry, too,"
he added, then dropped his eyes innocently.

The other was punching new holes in his belt
with an unwieldy jack-knife. He suddenly gave
off twisting the point of the knife against the
leather and lifted it menacingly in the direction
of his tormentor.

"Look-a-here, Professor," he retorted, "I ain't
feelin' any too pert right now, and I'll take a hop
out o' you if you don't shet up!"

[[235]]

p234 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p235w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p236

v?