And all the
while the cork was out of that jug, so that the fumes of the whisky rose
maddeningly to his nostrils, and the little that he had swallowed
whipped the thirst-devil to a fury of desire.
In the kitchen, Mose rattled pans and hummed a raucous tune under his
breath, and presently he started again for the stable. Dick, desultorily
bracing a leaning post of one of the corrals, saw him coming and
grinned. He glanced toward the bunk-house, where Ford still lingered,
and the grin grew broader. After that he went all around the corral with
his hammer and bucket of nails, tightening poles and braces and,
incidentally, keeping an eye upon the bunk-house; and while he worked,
he whistled and smiled by turns. Dick was in an unusually cheerful mood
that day.
Mose came shuffling up behind him and stood with his stiff leg thrust
forward and his hands rolled up in his apron. Dick could see that he had
something clasped tightly under the wrappings.
"Say, that he-hen--she laid twice in the same place!" Mose announced
confidentially. "Got 'em both--for m'mince pies!" He waggled his head,
winked twice with his left eye, and went back to the bunk-house.
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