They had reached the crown of the hill bordering the valley, where the trail debouched upon the prairie beyond, and the effort of easing his horse, as the struggling beast clawed its way up the shelving slope, at last set loose the tide of the loafer's ill-temper. He suddenly turned upon his companions, his angry face dirty and sweating. "Say," he cried, "of all the blamed fules I'd say we three was the craziest ever pupped." Sandy turned inquiring, contemptuous eyes in his direction. He always adopted a defensive attitude when Sunny opened out. Toby only grinned and waited for what was to come. "Meanin'?" inquired Sandy in his coldest manner. "Meanin'? Gee! it don't need a mule's intellec' to get my meanin'," said the loafer witheringly. "Wot, in the name o' glory, would I mean but this doggone ride we're takin'? Say, here's us three muttons chasin' glory on the tail o' two soppy lambs that ain't got savvee enough between 'em to guess the north end of a hoss when he's goin' south. An', wot's more, we're doin' it like a lot o' cluckin' hens chasin' a brood o' fule chicks. I tell you it jest makes me sick. An' ef I don't git six weeks' rest straight on end after this is thro' I'll be gettin' plumb 'bug,' or--or the colic, or suthin' ornery bum. I've done. Sufferin' Creek ain't no place fer a peace-lovin' feller like me, whose doin' all he knows to git thro' life easy an' without breakin' up a natterally delicate constitootion. I'm done. I quit." Sandy's face was a study in sneers. Not because he did not agree with the sentiments, but Sunny always irritated him. But Toby only grinned the harder, and for once, while the widower was preparing an adequate retort, contrived to forestall him. "Seems to me, Sunny, you ain't got a heap o' kick comin' to you," he said in his slow way. "I allow you come in this racket because you notioned it. Mebbe you'll say why you did it, else?" This unexpected challenge from Toby had the effect of diverting the widower's thoughts. He left the consideration of the snub he had been preparing for the loafer for some future time, and waited for the other's reply. But Sunny was roused, and stared angrily round upon the grinning face of his questioner. "Guess that ain't no affair of yours, anyway," he snorted. "I don't stand fer questions from no remittance guy. Gee! things is gittin' pretty low-down when it comes to that."