“I thought to provoke him, and that he’d tackle me. But he seemed to have no fancy for a fight, for he said, quite humble like—
“‘I throw nothin’ in your face; God forbid I should reproach you with your losses! I’m sorry for you, on the contrary. Don’t look like a man who can afford to lose his dollars. Seem to me one who airns his money by hard work.’
“We were just then halted at the further end of the cane-brake, close to the trees that border the Jacinto. I had turned my horse, and was frontin’ the stranger. And all the time the devil was busy whisperin’ to me, and pointin’ to the belt round the man’s waist. I could see where it was, plain enough, though he had buttoned his coat over it.
“‘Hard work, indeed,’ says I; ‘and now I’ve lost everything; not a cent left for a quid of baccy.’
“‘If that’s all,’ says he, ‘there’s help for that. I don’t chew myself, and I ain’t a rich man; I’ve wife and children, and want every cent I’ve got, but it’s one’s duty to help a countryman. You shall have money for tobacco and a dram.’
“And so sayin’, he took a purse out of his pocket, in which he carried his change. It was pretty full; there may have been some twenty dollars in it; and as he drew the string, it was as if the devil laughed and nodded to me out of the openin’ of the purse.
“‘Halves!’ cried I.
“‘No, not that,’ says he; ‘I’ve wife and child, and what I have belongs to them; but half a dollar——’
“‘Halves!’ cried I again, ‘or else——’
“‘Or else?’ repeated he; and as he spoke, he put the purse back into his pocket, and laid hold of the rifle which was slung on his shoulder.