"For thunder sakes!" I sung out. "What ails you? Ain't you goin' to say nothin' at all?"
"What is there to say?" he asked, gruff. "We're stung—and that's the end of it."
"But—but—don't you realize—Why, our bid was the lowest! And yet the contract—"
He whirled on me savage.
"Didn't I tell you," says he, "that I didn't give a durn about the contract?"
"You don't! You don't! Then who on airth does?"
"I don't know and I don't care!"
"You don't care! I swan to man! Why, 'twas you that swore you'd put the screens in that hotel or die tryin'. You said 'twas a matter of principle with you. And now that the Eureka folks have beat us by some shenanigan or other—for our bid was lower than theirs—you say you don't care! Have you gone loony? What do you care about?"
"Nothin'—much," says he, and flopped down in his chair again.
I stared at him. All at once I begun to see a light. You'd have thought anybody that wa'n't stone blind would have seen it afore—but I hadn't. You see, I cal'lated that I knew him from trunk to keelson, and so it never once occurred to me. I riz and walked over to him. Just as I done so, I heard the front door open and shut, but I figgered 'twas Mary comin' back, and didn't even look. I laid my hand on his shoulder.