ance myself to-day,
Dog--but I've got ter hold my hand for a spell yit, an' ye've got ter
give me yore solemn pledge ter hold your'n, too. Hit mustn't be said
thet ef any man--even Kinnard--trusts us enough ter ride inter our
midst when we're gathered, he kain't be heered in safety."

The messenger stood looking down at the grewsome souvenir of the
tragedy which he believed left him a debtor with an unpaid score. Clan
obedience and individual lust for reprisal shook him in profound
dilemma, but finally, with a strong effort, he nodded his head--though
grudgingly.

"I gives ye my hand," he said in a dull voice, and up to them at that
moment rode a spattered horseman who, because of Towers' relationship
and marriage with a Stacy wife, was qualified as a neutral.

"I brings tidin's from Kinnard Towers," he announced. "He seeks ter
hold a parley with ye. He comes in peace, an' he wants yore pledge thet
he kin fare hither without harm."

Turner's jaw came out with a belligerent set, but he answered slowly.
"I was over at his place last night an' he didn't hardly hold _me_
harmless. None-the-less, tell him ter come on. I'll send back a few of
my kinfolks with ye ter safeguard him along ther way."

CHAPTER XVIII

Luke Towers, the father of Kinnard, had been one of those fierce and
humorless old feudists of primal animosities and exploits as engagingly
bold as the feats of moss-trooping barons. The "Stacy-Towers" war had
broken into eruption in his day. No man remembered to just what origin
it was traceable--but it had, from its forgotten cause, flared,
guttered, smoldered and flared again until its toll of lives had
reached a scattering summary enumerated in scores and its record had
included some sanguinary highlights of pitched battle. The state
government had sought to regulate its bloodier phases with the
impressive lesson of troops and Gatling guns, but that had been very
much like scourging tempestuous seas with rods.

Courts sat and charged panels, with a fine ironic mask of solemnity.
Grand juries were sworn and listened with an equal mockery of owlish
dignity. Deputies rode forth and returned with unserved subpoenas.
Prosecutions collapsed, since no law unbacked by public sanction in its
own jurisdiction can prevail. Stacys and Towers, alike fierce in
private quarrel and jealous of their right of personal settlement,
became blankly ignorant in the witness chair; welded by their very
animosities into a