rails; and, in
unloading them, they accidentally threw some of them over the line on to
White's land. The latter said nothing about the matter until spring,
when he wrote McGee a letter, asking him to remove the rails from his
land. McGee paid no attention to the request, and he soon received a
second note, when he said to his wife: "That fellow is about to turn
himself a fool--I'll give him a cow-hiding." A third and more emphatic
note followed, in which White told the Boss that the rails must be
removed within twenty-four hours. He grew indignant, and, in true
Southern style, he went immediately to town and bought arms, and
prepared himself for the fray. When he returned he had every hand on the
plantation stop regular work, and put them all to building the fence. I
was of the number. Boss and the overseer came out to overlook the work
and hurry it on. About four o'clock in the afternoon White put in an
appearance, and came face to face with McGee, sitting on his horse and
having a double barreled shot gun lying across the pummel of his saddle.
White passed on without saying a word, but Boss yelled at him; "Hello! I
see you are about to turn yourself a d--d fool." White checked up and
began to swear, saying: "You are a coward to attack an unarmed man." He
grew furious, took off his hat, ran his fingers through his hair,
saying: "Here I am, blow me to h--l, and I'll have some one blow you
there before night." During White's rage he said: "I'll fight you
anywhere--bowie-knife fight, shot gun fight or any other." He called, in
his excitement, for his nephew, who was working on his farm, to come,
and immediately sent him to Billy Duncan's to get him a double barreled
shot gun. Meantime, Mrs. McGee appeared on the scene, and began to cry,
begging White to stop and allow her to speak to him. But he replied: "Go
off, go off, I don't want to speak to you." Boss grew weak and sick, and
through his excitement, was taken violently ill, vomiting as if he had
taken an emetic. He said to White; "I'll return as soon as I take my
wife home," but he never came back. As Boss and the madam rode off,
White came galloping back, and said to Brooks, our overseer: "If I am
shot down on foul play would you speak of it?" Brooks replied: "No, I
don't care to interfere--I don't wish to have anything to do with it."
White was bloodthirsty, and came back at intervals during the entire
night, where we were working, to see if he could find Boss. It is