Clark grinned at Adelle and replied with an intentional drawl,-- "I been discharged once on this job and taken back, and this time I mean to stick until the job's done." "No, you won't!" Archie shouted. "Oh, so I won't?... Well, I ain't taking my orders from you. She's the boss on the ranch, I guess." He indicated Adelle with a nod. This came altogether too near the truth to be pleasant for Archie. "You damned--" With his heavy polo whip raised he sprang at the mason. Adelle dragged at his arm, and he turned to shake her off, raising his free hand threateningly. "Take care!" the mason called out. "Don't hit a woman!" As if in defiance, as if to show that he could hit at least this woman who belonged to him by law, even though her possessions might not belong to him entirely, Archie's left hand came down upon Adelle's arm with sufficient force to be called a blow. Adelle dropped her grip of her husband's arm with a slight cry of fright and shame rather than of pain. Archie did not have to step forward to get at the mason, for with one bound Clark sprang from his seat on the box and dealt Archie such a smashing blow in the middle of the face that he fell crumpled in a heap on the ground between Adelle and the mason. He lay there gasping and groaning for a few moments--long enough for Adelle to realize completely how she loathed him. Before this she had known that she was not happy in her marriage, that Archie was far from the lover she had dreamed of, that he was lacking in certain common virtues very necessary in any society. Indeed, he had treated her roughly before now, in accesses of alcoholic irritation, but always there had been in her mind a lingering affection for the boy she had once loved and spoiled--enough to make her pardon and forget. But now she saw him beneath the skin with the deadly clearness of vision that precludes all forgiveness. At last Archie crawled giddily to his feet, his nose running with blood which spattered over his rumpled silk shirt. He looked at his opponent uncertainly, as if he would like to try conclusions again, but a glance at the mason's large hard hands and stocky frame was enough. Turning, he said,--"I'll fix you for this," and started for Highcourt. "Oh, go to hell!" the mason called after him, resuming his seat on the soap-box and relighting his pipe. Adelle, before she followed her husband, said to her new-found cousin in a tone clear enough to reach Archie's ears,-- "Of course you are not discharged. I am very sorry for this." "That's all right," the mason replied. "I don't worry about him."