Page:Teeftallow-1926.djvu/359

of his thought grew pleasanter and more interesting. The fact that he was going to marry Adelaide Jones and live in the Jones mansion appeared in rosier colours than it ever had before. As for Adelaide, her strangeness would naturally wear away after she was his wife. He visualized her as he had last seen her that morning, driving over the hill to Irontown—she was perpetually driving to Irontown; he spent a moment wondering why.

Here he had an impulse to reach out in the darkness and have another drink, but he thought he had had enough. That was the thing about drinking whisky, to know when you had had enough. Then he did take another drink, after all; the merest sip, which again set burning his mouth and throat.

Outside somebody fired a pistol very rapidly five times, and Abner heard a voice expostulating, "Let the men sleep!"

A little later somebody drew aside the flaps of his tent and told him it was time for him to come on watch. Abner arose, put on his shoes and trousers, took his bottle, and went yawning out into the night. The man who had come for him preceded him through the dim line of tents and came to a place on the levee overlooking a long shanghai stable. Here, seated on the levee over a little pile of coals, was the first watch of the night, mending his fire with some pieces of pine boxes. The fellow handed Abner a flashlight and apologized for the dying fire; he said he had gone to sleep "accident'ly."

Abner produced his bottle and offered the departing watchman a swig to make him sleep well, while he himself took another to keep from getting drowsy during the long stretch till dawn. The men went away and Abner sat down by the freshly burning fire to watch.

The wind nipped him chilly after the warmth of his blankets, and the big fellow turned his collar up about his ears and reached into the inner pocket of his coat and felt the bulk of his pistol. A wide rustling of dead leaves filled the whole dark valley, and against this came an occasional squeal of a mule in the long stable, or the hard kicking of hoofs