The Womans Way

"I'm trying to make up my mind whether I should give you your discharge

or a good hiding. I don't like sacking a man in a strange land, and

you're not in a condition for a fair fight. What do you think I ought to

do?"

Jackman staggered to his feet and glared at him.

"You've hit me once before, Mr. Green," he said. "Hit me again--just lay

your hand on me, and it'll be the last man you ever bash. You're an

upstart, that's what you are. You think, because you can come over that

old fool, that you're going to lord it over everybody. You can play that

sort of game with the women, but you can't with me. I'm engaged for this

trip, and you can't sack me because I made a slip of it in the ring just

now. I know the law, Mr. Green. You think I'm drunk. I'm sober enough to

best you, anyhow."

Thinking to take Derrick unawares, the foolish man aimed a blow at him;

but Derrick caught the arm, and almost gently forced Jackman into his

seat again.

"If you hadn't gone for me I'd have sacked you; but I see there's some

good left in you, anyhow. Pull yourself together, man, and don't be an

idiot. Cut this stuff"--he tapped the bottle--"and do your job properly.

I'll talk to you in the morning. No, I won't; but if I find you playing

the giddy goat again, I'll give you your choice of a hiding or a

discharge."

As Derrick hurried off to the manager's office he asked himself why he

had been so merciful, for the man had deserved all with which Derrick

had threatened him. But Derrick knew, for as he had stood looking down

at the man, he had remembered a certain young man who had been saved

from playing the fool by a girl; and the remembrance would never leave

him, would always make him merciful towards the folly of other men.

Mr. Bloxford was not wearing his fur coat, but he nodded to the garment,

where it hung on a chair behind him.

"Help me on with it, will you? Took it off--thought there was going to

be a row," he said, with the air of a man who is quite able alone to

quell a disturbance. "You managed that very well, Mr. Green." This was

the first time he had honoured Derrick with a prefix. "The neatest thing

I've seen. Yes, you're a cool hand, young man. At first I thought you

were going to come the high and mighty over that cowboy, and if you had,

you'd have raised Hades and Thomasus. We should have had the rest of

them on us and the show wrecked, like they did that other one. I tell

you I was out of that coat before you could say Jack Robinson. But

before you were half across the ring I twigged your game. And you played

it for all it was worth. You're made of the right stuff. Yes, you're the

sort of man I've read about in the silly story books; but I little

thought I should ever come across him. Now, I wonder why it is?"