"I'm listening," said Garth.
Mabyn twisted uneasily. "Damn it! How can a man make friendly advances when you're standing over him with a gun!" he said.
"Say what you've got to say, or clear out," said Garth.
The aggrieved air proving ineffectual, Mabyn substituted offended silence; offered to go; and came back. "Well, look here!" he said at last. "This is it. Here are the three of us up here——"
"Four," amended Garth.
"Well, four if you like," said Mabyn. "We're stuck here together. We can't afford to quarrel. We've got to have some working agreement."
"Is that all?" said Garth uncompromisingly.
Mabyn looked around with the air of a much-tried man, appealing to the bystanders—that they were only indifferent trees, rather spoiled the effect. "I wouldn't take this from any man if it wasn't that I was bent on avoiding trouble," he blustered.
Garth suppressed the scornful inclination to laugh.
"Look here," began Mabyn afresh, with a reasonable air. "I came to offer you the shack for Natalie. She can't sleep in the open in her condition."