upporters, and to him, perhaps, more than to any
other two men in the county, I owed my position.

"Absalom Turnell's rancorous speeches had stirred all the county, and
the apprehension of the outbreak his violence was in danger of
bringing might have caused trouble but for John Halloway's coolness and
level-headedness. John offered to go around and follow Absalom up at his
meetings. He could 'spike his guns,' he said.

"Some of his friends wanted to go with him. 'You 'd better not try
that,' they argued. That fellow, Ab. Turnell 's got it in for you.' But
he said no. The only condition on which he would go was that he should
go alone.

"'They ain't any of 'em going to trouble me. I know 'em all and I git
along with 'em first rate. I don't know as I know this fellow Ab.; he 's
sort o' grown out o' my recollection; but I want to see. He knows me, I
know. I got my hand on him once when he was a boy--about my age, and he
ain't forgot that, I know. He was a blusterer; but he did n 't have real
grit. He won't say nothin' to my face. But I must go alone. You all are
too flighty.'

"So Halloway went alone and followed Ab. up at his 'camp-fires,' and if
report was true his mere presence served to curb Ab.'s fury, and take
the fire out of his harangues. Even the negroes got to laughing and
talking about it 'Ab. was jest like a dog when a man faced him,' they
said; 'he could n' look him in the eye.'

"The night before the election there was a meeting at one of the worst
places in the county, a country store at a point known as Burley's Fork,
and Halloway went there, alone--and for the first time in the canvass
thought it necessary to interfere. Absalom, stung by the taunts of
some of his friends, and having stimulated himself with mean whiskey,
launched out in a furious tirade against the whites generally, and me
in particular; and called on the negroes to go to the polls next day
prepared to 'wade in blood to their lips.' For himself, he said, he had
'drunk blood' before, both of white men and women, and he meant to drink
it again. He whipped out and flourished a pistol in one hand and a knife
in the other.

"His language exceeded belief, and the negroes, excited by his violence,
were showing the effect on their emotions of his wild declamation, and
were beginning to respond with shouts and cries when Halloway rose and
walked forward. Absalom turned and started to meet him, yelling his fury
and threats, and the audience w