constrained to discard this fear, and demand, "What brung ye ter
Witch-Face Mounting then, Mr. Sneed?"

"Waal, some fellows war app'inted by the county court ter view the
road an' report on it," said Persimmon, "an' I kem along ter see how
it mought affect my interust."

How far away, how long ago, how infinitely unimportant, seemed all
those convolutions of trail and argument in which he had expended the
finest flowers of his contradictory faculties, the stanch immobility
of his obstinacy, his unswerving singleness of purpose in seeing only
one side of a question, this afternoon, a few short hours since! The
mutability of the affairs of the most immutable of human beings!

This reflection was cut short by observing the stare of blank
amazement on Nick Peters's face. "Road!" he said. "Thar ain't no
road."

"They air app'inted ter lay out an' report on openin' one," explained
Persimmon Sneed.

Evidently Nick Peters's experience of the law was in its criminal
rather than in its civil phases, but the surprise died out of his
face, and he presently said, with a beguiling air of frankness, "Now,
Mr. Sneed, ye see this happens right in my way of trade. Jes' tell me
whar them loafers air, an' how many horses they hev got along, an'
I'll gin ye the bes' beastis I hev got ter ride, an' a pair o'
shootin'-irons and set ye in the valley road on the way home. Ye kin
say ye war lost from them."

It is true that in this moment Persimmon Sneed remembered each of his
contumacious comrades, and saw that they outnumbered by one the
horse-thief's gang; he realized that they were out of leading-strings,
and amply capable of taking care of themselves. He had that wincing
terror which an unarmed man experiences at the sight of
"shootin'-irons" in the grasp of other and antagonistic men. More than
all, he looked at those hell-lighted flames, as he esteemed them,
rising out of the lustrous water, and believed the jocose barbarity of
the threat of the brutal henchman might be serious earnest in its
execution.

But the jury of view and their companions were all unprepared for
molestation in such wise as menaced them. He reflected anew upon their
dismounted condition, the horses hitched at a distance, the saddles
scattered on the ground in the darkness, with the holsters buckled to
them and the pistols within. A sudden attack meant a successful
robbery and perchance bloodshed.

"I'll die fust!" he said loudly, and he had never looked