from the floor. He had been told about Rome's peculiar conduct,
and, while the reason for it was beyond guessing, he knew the
temper of the boy and how to kindle it. He had thrust a thorn in a
tender spot, and he let it rankle. How sorely it did rankle he little
knew. The voice of the woman across the river was still in Rome 5
ears. Nothing cuts the mountaineer to the quick like the name of
coward. It stung him like the lash of an ox-whip then; it smarted
all the way across the river and up the mountain. Young Jasper
had been charging him broadcast with cowardice, and Jasper's
people no doubt believed it. Perhaps his own did
-his uncle, his mother. The bare chance of such a humiliation set
up an inward rage. He wondered how he could ever have been
such a fool as to think of peace. The woman's gossip had swept
kindly impulses from his heart with a fresh tide of bitterness, and,
helpless now against its current, he sullenly gave way, and let his
passions loose to drift with it.

"Whar d' ye git the guns, Rufe? " Steve was testing the action of
the Winchester with a kindling look, as the click of the locks
struck softly through the silence.

"Jackson; 'way up in Breathitt, at the eend of the new road."

"No wonder y'u've been gone so long."

"I had to wait thar fer the guns, 'n' I had to travel atter dark comm'
back, 'n' lay out'n the bresh by day. Hit's full eighty mile up thar."

"Air ye shore nobody seed ye?"