For thirty minutes he balanced on the fence, testing first one then the other of the horns of his dilemma. But suddenly he saw, across the fields where the high-road was visible, a horse and rider approaching at a quick canter. He slid down and walked with an air of grim resolution to the stables. Peter was in the harness-room busily engaged in cleaning out the closet. The floor was a litter of buckles and straps and horse medicine. "Well?" he inquired, as Bobby appeared in the door. "You can give me that licking if you want," said Bobby, "but I tell you now, _I'll pay you back_!" "All right!" said Peter, cheerfully, reaching for a strap that hung behind the door. "I'm ready if you are. We'll go down in the lower meadow where there won't be no interruption." He led the way and Bobby followed a dozen paces behind. They paused in a secluded clump of willows. "Take yer coat off," said Peter. Bobby cast him one appealing glance, but his face was adamant. "Take it off," he repeated. Bobby complied without a word, his own face growing white. Peter laid on the strap six times. He did not soften the blows in the slightest; it was exactly the same flogging that a stable-boy would have received under the same circumstances. Two tears slipped down Bobby's cheeks, but he set his jaw hard and took it like a man. Peter dropped the strap. "I'm sorry, Master Bobby. I didn't like it any better than you, but it had to be done. Are we friends?" he held out his hand. "No, we're not friends!" Bobby snapped. He turned his back and put on his coat; then he started for the house. "You'll be sorry," he threw over his shoulder. During the next few days Bobby ignored Peter. If he had any business in the neighbourhood of the stables he addressed himself ostentatiously to one of the under men. The rupture of their friendship did not pass unmarked, though the grooms soon found that it did not pay to be facetious on the subject. Billy, in return for some jocular comments, spent an afternoon in adding a superfluous lustre to already brilliant carriage lamps. The mustang arrived, was christened Apache, and assigned to a box stall. He possessed a slightly vicious eye and a tendency to buck, as two of the grooms found to their cost while trying to ride him bareback in the paddock. Peter shook his head dubiously as he watched the unseating of the second groom. "We'll put a curb bit on that horse. I don't just like his looks for a youngster to ride." "Huh!" said Billy, "Master Bobby ain't such a baby as everybody thinks; he can manage him all right."