SON OF THE WIND
tion with dead leaves let the rake fall with a clatter on the ground. "Who directed me here?" he demanded. "Now what are you whimpering about?"
"Never mind this!" Ferrier declared shrilly. "I didn't direct you here for this reason. I thought you were a decent kind of a feller. I didn't expect you to come here, and take a girl and try to—"
Carron made the quick step of the boxer toward him. The fellow chocked the word and dodged. "You've got your chance to go peaceably and take the horse," he stammered—"or stay and you'll be kicked out in twenty-four hours. I'll tell them!" His voice began to rise as if it tried to reach the height of some appalling warning. "I'll tell Mrs. Rader."
Carron began to laugh. There was no sneer in the long sound of mirth. That threat had struck him as particularly funny. "All right," he said cheerfully. "Go ahead. You've my entire permission. Suppose we go up together now and you tell her about it." He looked at Ferrier with a bantering eye.
Ferrier's face was a peculiarly unpleasant dull red. "Do you think I don't mean it?"
"I think you mean every word—and I mean every word. Whenever you like; it's the same to me." He shouldered his rake and walked away up the drive.
260
