"Ye devil, let me alone!" Then turning fiercely on the drover, "
Yours, mister?" he asked. The man nodded. "Then call him aff,
can't ye? D--n ye!" At which Teddy Boistock withdrew, sniggering;
and Jim Mason slung the post-bags on to his shoulder and plunged
out into the rain, the faithful Betsy following, disconsolate.

The cause of the squall, having beaten off the attacking force, had
withdrawn again beneath its chair. M'Adam stooped down, still
cursing, his wet coat on his arm, and beheld a tiny yellow puppy,
crouching defiant in the dark, and glaring out with fiery light eyes.
Seeing itself remarked, it bared its little teeth, raised its little
bristles, and growled a hideous menace.

A sense of humor is many a man's salvation, and was M'Adam's
one redeeming feature. The laughableness of the thing--this
ferocious atomy defying him--struck home to the little man.
Delighted at such a display of vice in so tender a plant, he fell to
chuckling.

"Ye leetle devil!" he laughed. "He! he! ye leetle devil!" and flipped
together finger and thumb in vain endeavor to coax the puppy to
him.

But it growled, and glared more terribly.

"Stop it, ye little snake, or I'll flatten you!" cried the big drover,
and shuffled his feet threateningly. Whereat the puppy, gurgling
like hot water in a kettle, made a feint as though to advance and
wipe them out, these two bad men.