Page:The Cow Jerry (1925).pdf/341

 that night. He met Pap Cowgill in his overalls and cap, on his way to take an extra run for which he had been called.

"Who's leavin'?" Pap asked.

"Louise," said Angus, letting down the shafts.

"Louise?" Pap repeated, his heart hitting the bottom of the pit. "Where's she goin' to?"

"Goin' east on Eight," said Angus, enjoying the situation keenly on account of his dislike for Pap, who was too free with his orders, and his full understanding of that young man's intentions with regard to Louise.

"What's she leavin' for?" Pap wondered, dazed by the news.

"It'd pay you to keep posted," said Angus Valorous, with great contempt. "The cow jerry come back to town this evening; him and her was married a little while ago."

"The hu-hu-hu—," said Pap.

If Pap ever was able to complete it, Angus Valorous did not hear the end. He left Pap standing in the road as cruelly winded as if the hardest hitter in McPacken had given him a jolt in that seat of his soul where his pie went home.

Angus Valorous went on toward the hotel with the wheelbarrow, in little starts, little haltings. He was a freight engine, pulling out of the McPacken yards on a wet night, his drivers spinning on the slippery rails. He puffed now in deep, laboring exhaust, going with slow step in measure with it; now in quick, explosive racing, as the drivers spun on the wet rails, his feet