isdell, comin' out of his trance.

"The rest of us jest looked. I'd forgot your dad, for the minnit. So
had all of us. But we remembered soon enough when we seen him stalk
out. Everybody had a hunch then. I called him. Blaisdell begged him
to come back. All the fellars; had a say. No use! Then I shore cussed
him an' told him it was plain as day thet Jorth didn't hit me like an
honest man. I can sense such things. I knew Jorth had trick up his
sleeve. I've not been a gun fighter fer nothin'.

"Your dad had no rifle. He packed his gun at his hip. He jest stalked
down thet road like a giant, goin' faster an' faster, holdin' his head
high. It shore was fine to see him. But I was sick. I heerd
Blaisdell groan, an' Fredericks thar cussed somethin' fierce.... When
your dad halted--I reckon aboot fifty steps from Jorth--then we all
went numb. I heerd your dad's voice--then Jorth's. They cut like
knives. Y'u could shore heah the hate they hed fer each other."

Blue had become a little husky. His speech had grown gradually to
denote his feeling. Underneath his serenity there was a different
order of man.

"I reckon both your dad an' Jorth went fer their guns at the same
time--an even break. But jest as they drew, some one shot a rifle from
the store. Must hev been a forty-five seventy. A big gun! The bullet
must have hit your dad low down, aboot the middle. He acted thet way,
sinkin' to his knees. An' he was wild in shootin'--so wild thet he
must hev missed. Then he wabbled--an' Jorth run in a dozen steps,
shootin' fast, till your dad fell over.... Jorth run closer, bent over
him, an' then straightened up with an Apache yell, if I ever heerd
one.... An' then Jorth backed slow--lookin' all the time--backed to the
store, an' went in."

Blue's voice ceased. Jean seemed suddenly released from an impelling
magnet that now dropped him to some numb, dizzy depth. Blue's lean
face grew hazy. Then Jean bowed his head in his hands, and sat there,
while a slight tremor shook all his muscles at once. He grew deathly
cold and deathly sick. This paroxysm slowly wore away, and Jean grew
conscious of a dull amaze at the apparent deadness of his spirit.
Blaisdell placed a huge, kindly hand on his shoulder.

"Brace up, son!" he said, with voice now clear and resonant. "Shore
it's what your dad expected--an' what we all must look for.... If yu
was goin' to kill Jorth before--think how -- -- shore y'u're goin' to