Bud crawled in rather crest-fallen, and they drove on.
CHAPTER IV
HOW THE BISHOP FROZE
The Bishop laughed outright as his mind went back again.
“Well,” he went on reminiscently, “I'll have to finish my tale an' tell you how I throwed the cold steel into Jud Carpenter when I got back. I saw I had it to do, to work back into my daddy-in-law's graces an' save my reputation.
“Now, Jud had lied to me an' swindled me terribly, when he put off that old no-count hoss on me. Of course, I might have sued him, for a lie is a microbe which naturally develops into a lawyer's fee. But while it's a terrible braggart, it's really cowardly an' delicate, an' will die of lock-jaw if you only pick its thumb.
“So I breshed up that old black to split-silk fineness, an' turned him over to Dr. Sykes, a friend of mine living in the next village. An' I said to the Doctor, 'Now remember he is yo' hoss until Jud Carpenter comes an' offers you two hundred dollars for him.'