"It's plain you were making yourself quite at home here. What were you doing with Anson?"
"Jest givin' him a piece o' my mind," answered Tracy promptly. "I reckon he knows now purty well what I think of him."
Now to Merry, it had seemed on his appearance that these two men were engaged in a confidential chat.
"Well, couldn't you find some other place to talk to him?" Frank asked.
"I brought him here so the rest of the boys wouldn't hear us," explained Tracy. "I opined they might take a right strong dislike to him in case they found out what happened this mornin'."
"You have not told them?"
"No."
"Well, your consideration for Anson seems very strange, considering the talk you made to-day at an earlier hour."
"I'm jest follerin' your orders," protested the foreman, not at all pleased by Merry's manner.