Aaron Wolverton made a dash at him with his recovered whip, but Clip nimbly jumped to one side and laughed again.
"Didn't do it dat time, Massa Wolverton," said Clip, showing his teeth.
"I'll get even with you yet, you black monkey!"
If Clip had been alone, Wolverton would have proceeded then and there to carry out his threat. But he had a wholesome respect for Bob, whose physical strength and prowess he well knew. It made him angry whenever he thought of this boy, who seemed born to be a thorn in his side. He was stronger than Wolverton, though the land agent was a man grown, and it was humiliating to Wolverton to be obliged to admit this fact.
But he had one consolation in the mortgage he held upon the Burton ranch. Here the law was on his side, and he saw his way clear to annoy and injure Bob and his family, without running any risk himself. As for the chance of the mortgage ever being paid off, that he thought extremely small. If Richard Burton were still alive, he would have been right, but Bob, young as he was, bade fair to be a better manager than his father. He was not so sanguine, or, if the truth must be told, so reckless in his expenditures. Besides, he knew, though his father was ignorant of it, that Wolverton, for some reason which he could not penetrate, was a bitter enemy of the family, and that his forbearance could not be depended upon.
When Bob and Clip had left the scene Aaron Wolverton turned to Sam, and scowled at his unfortunate nephew, in a way which was by no means pleasant or reassuring.
"I've a good mind to flog you for all the trouble you've brought upon me," he said.
"I don't see what I've done, uncle."
"You don't, hey? Haven't you sided with that upstart, the Burton boy?"
Sam was judiciously silent, for he saw his uncle was very much irritated.