t waitin' for him on the store porch. When he see me he come
up to me uglier'n sin. 'Who in hell invited _you_? he says. He weighed
twice as much as me, and I see he was fightin' mad. He leapt like a
cat to one side of me and 'fore I knowed it he had me down. Them what
was in the store come out, but thar warn't one of 'em that darst lay
hands on Bailey. We wrastled some in the road--the dust blinded me.
Then he begun to kick me in the mouth and back; I couldn't see for the
blood. When I woke up I was to home and I seen she was gone. Bimeby
I crawled out of bed into the kitchen and I see Ed Sumner settin'
'longside the stove. 'Bob,' says he, 'he used ye awful, no use
talkin'--he liked to killed ye; I hauled him clear o' ye and carried
ye back home. Ye'd better git back into bed,' says he. 'Doc' Rand'll
be here 'fore long; I'll be back in an hour,' says he. 'Fore I knowed
it he was gone. That was 'bout three o'clock; the sun was shinin'
warm in the kitchen and I sot thar thinkin' and gittin' steadier and
madder. Bimeby I filled the magazine of my Winchester and started to
find Bailey. Thar was more'n a dozen on the store porch when I come
up. When they seen me they slunk back in the store and shut the door.
I stood thar waitin' in the road; then I see Bailey come out. 'Hain't
you got your satisfy?' he says, 'you--' and I see him jerk out a
revolver. He was jest steppin' off the porch when my first ball hit
him. He give a scream, tumbled in the road and started to git up on
his hands and knees; the second ball broke his neck. Then I walked
into the store. 'I'm through,' I says, 'but the first man that lays
hands on me I'll kill same's I killed him.' Thar warn't none of 'em
that spoke or moved. What I needed I took and paid for; a box of
ca'tridges, matches and a can of beef. I had a dollar bill and I laid
it on the counter and walked out the store and started into the woods.
That's the hull of it, Mr. Thayor. 'Sposin it had been your wife, or
your leetle gal. You'd hev done the same's I done, wouldn't ye?"

Thayor breathed heavily.

"Wouldn't ye?" insisted Dinsmore. "He ruined her, body and soul--he
stole her, I tell ye; he warn't satisfied with that--he got her to
drinkin'. Wouldn't ye a-killed him, Mr. Thayor?"

Thayor's eyes sought the shadows between the pines; for an instant
he did not reply. Suddenly Sperry's face loomed before him and as
instantly vanished, only to appear again as certain excuses hitherto
explain