“It seemed to anger him. I don’t know why; and he thundered out:
“‘WHICH fox? Why, THE fox? Which way did the FOX go?’
“I said, with great gentleness—even argumentatively:
“‘If you could be a little more definite—a little less vague—because I am a stranger, and there are many foxes, as you will know even better than I, and unless I know which one it is that you desire to identify, and——’
“‘You’re certainly the damdest idiot that has escaped in a thousand years!’ and he snatched his great horse around as easily as I would snatch a cat, and was away like a hurricane. A very excitable man.
“I went back to Mrs. Blank, and she was excited, too—oh, all alive. She said:
“‘He spoke to you!—didn’t he?’
“‘Yes, it is what happened.’