“Well,” Hoag tittered, “I can't see no sense in a big strappin' feller like you actin' like a jumpin'-jack pullin' it's own string away out here in the woods all by yourself.”
Trawley threw back his broad shoulders, took a shorter breath, and answered: “I railly didn't intend to be seen, Jim, much less by you, who never would believe nothin' outside o' your own hide. I've been doin' this thing for a month or more.”
“You say you have!” Hoag exhibited one of his rare tendencies toward a smile. “I see whar you've pawed up the grass considerable. It looks like the ground round the hitchin'-post of a prize stallion.”
“I reckon I have come here as much as anywhar else.” The liveryman comically surveyed the spot in question. “I git the walk out, an' I like to operate in the same spot. I can time myself, you see. I give a' hour to it twice a day—momin' an evenin'.”
“You say you do!” Hoag's smile broke broadly. “Workin' for yourself or hired out?”
“I knowed you'd joke,” Trawley said, half abashed, “but no joke o' your'n, Jim Hoag, will turn me from a thing as good as this is. I've been led by your sort long enough. Thar are things in heaven an' earth, Jimmy, that you never even saw the tail-end of, much less the head an' shoulders. I know, for I'm just beginnin' to catch onto a powerful big thing.”
“The last time I saw you,” Hoag said, with a smile, “you swore you was goin' to lie flat down an' die.”
“Yes, that's it; I did say it, an' I was as sure of it as I am that you are a-standin' thar pokin' fun right now. Jim, I was on the actual edge o' hell. I could see the smoke, smell the fumes, an' hear the smashin' o' teeth, mentioned in Scripture. You used to see me at work in the stable, but you never seed me after the sun went down an' the night piled thick and heavy around me. I was crazy. I expected to die right off, an' the trouble was that I wasn't ready. Then what do you reckon happened?”
“I was just wonderin'.” Hoag really was interested, and he stood staring seriously, all traces of humor submerged in curiosity.
“Well, I was at my lowest ebb one day. The doctor had examined me ag'in an' said I had no stomach that would hold a bite I ate, an' no relish for a thing, even soft baby truck. I was losin' weight as fast as a dump-cart o' manure with a plank gone from the bottom, an' I went to the stable an' set down to try to reconcile myself to the fate that all men has to meet sooner or later, but I couldn't. The more I thought about it the worse I got. Jim, in that little hour thar in my office, humped over my desk, I attended over ag'in every funeral I ever went to, an', more'n that, I seed every pore cuss our gang ever lynched a-hangin' from the rafters above the backs o' my hosses an' mules. I'd 'a' killed myself, but I knowed I'd just be hurried to judgment all the quicker, an' thar I was actually wallowin' in my despair. Then a miracle happened.”