He drew back a pace and contemplated his enemy witheringly. "'Nuff?--Oh! Ain't you? Ain't you, now?--Well take that, then!--And that!" He gave another cruel thrust into the very vitals of the defenseless machine, and then withdrew his dripping blade. "You _will_ waylay me just inside the door of this cave, will you!--You will, will you!--I guess you won't do that again--"
"Who you talkin' to?" came a voice at the door.
Sube jumped back, ready for another antagonist, as Cathead entered.
"Oh! It's you, is it?" asked Sube, about equally divided between relief and confusion. "I thought it was--that it might be--that--Why, I was jus' oilin' the machine!"
But Cathead did not press the point. He had other things in view. "Say, Sube," he began at once, "If you think thinnin' the beets is such a snap job, what'll you take to do 'em?"
Sube turned on his brother with a glare as he replied: "What d'you think I am! Don't you s'pose I got enough to do for one day?"
"Oh, you got enough to do without pay; but I was goin' to pay you," replied Cathead evenly.
"What do you want to do to-day?" demanded Sube.
"Nuthin' much. Do you want the job, or don't you?"
"I'll give you a dime. And it's an awful easy way to earn a dime, too," asserted Cathead suavely.
"I don't care so much about the money," vapored Sube; "but I'm goin' to be awful tired when I get through cuttin' the lawn."
"Well, if you don't care about the money, what do you care about?" demanded Cathead.
And suddenly Sube remembered all the valuable property he had parted with in order to get a much-needed haircut, and that Cathead had steadfastly refused to be treated like an "uncle," but had insisted that he had bought everything outright.
"Let's see," muttered Sube; "you still got my automatic?"
This high-sounding weapon was an antique revolver with the cylinder missing, but it was the apple of his eye.
"Why, yes," agreed Cathead. "I'll give you that."
Cathead had very little use for this misshapen trophy of the fire in the People's Pool Parlor, and readily included it. And one by one Sube enumerated all the things of which he had previously been mulcted, and they all came back to him. Then Cathead took his fish-pole and hurried off to join Cottontop Sigsbee for a day's sport with the finny family.