“Well, what do you want anyhow?”

“I don’t think that’s a very nice way to speak to a—­”

“Come on, what do you want to see me about?  Get it over with and get out.  It can’t help my case any if it gets noised around that you come down here to pay a friendly visit to me.  I’m havin’ a hard enough time as it is.  It’s gettin’ so it’s almost impossible to get back into the pen even—­”

“See here, Cassius, I’ve been giving your case a great deal—­of serious thought.  I want to help you out of this scrape if there is any way to do it.”

“That’s just what I thought you’d be up to,” groaned Cassius.  “What’s got into you?  Have you soured on life, or what is it?”

“Not a bit of it.  You do not get my meaning.  Your wife came to see me yesterday afternoon.”

“My wife?  Which one?”

“A tallish one with a flat nose.”

“Yes, I know her.  What’d she want?”

“She asked me to be as easy on you as I could, on account of the children.”

“How many children has she got now?”

“Four, she informs me.  The youngest is two and a half.”

Cassius seemed to be doing a bit of mental arithmetic.  He pondered well before speaking.  Then he said:  “Did she say whose children?”

“I assumed them to be yours, Cassius.”

Smilk grinned.  “Well, I guess she’s adopted a couple since the last time I saw her, which was five years ago last Spring.  I been married twice since then.  So she wants you to go easy on me, eh?”

“She seems to think that if I intercede for you the judge will let you off with a suspended sentence, and then you can go to work and support your family.”

“It’s time she woke up,” snarled Smilk.

“I been at large quite a bit in the last ten years and if she can prove that I ever supported her,—­why, darn her hide, what right has she got to accuse me of supportin’ her when she knows I’ve never been guilty of doin’ it?  She knows as well as anything that she supported me on three different occasions when I was out for a month or two at a stretch.  I will say this for her, she supported me better than the other two did,—­a lot better.  And it’s her own fault her nose is flat.  If she’d stood still that time—­But I’m not goin’ to discuss family affairs with you, Mr. Yol—­”

“Sh!  Easy!”

“It’s all right.  He ain’t listenin’.”

“What is your brother-in-law’s name?” in a whisper.

“I never had but one name for him, and it’s something I wouldn’t call you for anything in the world,” said Smilk.  “Let’s make it Bill.  You ain’t goin’ to do what she asks, are you?  You ain’t goin’ to do a dirty trick like that are you,—­Bill?”

“I thought I would come down and talk the matter over with you, Cash.  I’m in quite a dilemma.  She says if I don’t help you out of this scrape she and all your children will haunt me to my dying day.  It sounds rather terrible, doesn’t it?”