The elder miner slapped his leg gleefully, as if pleased with a joke, and said: "Well, I went up there five or six days ago, tryin' to find you, because I'd lost the combination to the safe, and wanted to look over them old drawings. I sneaked back, because I was a little jealous to see you sittin' on the pipe talkin' right friendly to such a good-looker. Three evenin's later while you were workin' on them mill samples, I thought I'd like to see the whole of the line. I took a walk. There's been a real good horse trail worked into the ground up there, ain't there? And it's a new trail, too. Seems as if somebody must have been riding up and down that way every day for just about two weeks. And it's serious, too, because you don't say nothin' to a man you was pardners with for more'n seven years. Hey, Dick! What ails you, anyway?" The younger man was on his feet with one of his fists drawn back, in an attitude of extreme temper. "Suppose after this you mind your own business?" For a full half minute the elder man sat there in the dusk, and then said slowly: "All right, boy--I mean, Mister Townsend--I will hereafter." In the gloom his figure seemed suddenly bent forward more than usual, and his voice had a note of terrible hurt. It was as if all the ties of seven years of vicissitude had been arbitrarily cast off by his old partner; that they had become master and man. His words conveyed an indescribable sorrow, and loss. "Bill!" Dick's arm had relaxed, and he had stepped closer. Mathews did not lift his head. A hand, pleading, fell on his shoulder, and rested there. "Bill, I didn't mean it! I'm--I'm--well, I'm upset. Something's happened to me. I didn't seem to realize it till just now. I'm--well, thank you, I'm making a fool of myself." The faithful gray head lifted itself, and the gray eyes glowed warmly as they peered in the dusk at the younger man's face. "Whe-e-w!" he whistled. "It's as bad as that, is it, boy? Just forget it, won't you? That is, forget I butted in." Dick sat down, hating himself for such an unusual outburst. He felt foolish, and extremely young again, as if his steadfast foundations of self-reliance and repression had been proven nothing more than sand. "I know how them things go," the slow voice, so soft as to be scarcely audible, continued. "I was young once, and it was good to be young. Not that I'm old now, because I'm not; but because when a feller is younger, there are hot hollows in his heart that he don't want anybody to know about. Only don't make me feel again that I ought to 'mister' you. I don't believe I could do that. It's pretty late to begin."