I had to get down off my horse to meet him. I own I struck him right
hard. There was another boy, a big black negro, that must have come
in here lately from some other part of the country, a big, stoop-
shouldered fellow--well, he started for me, too. I took up the same
piece of fence rail and knocked him down.

"I ought not to have told you this, ma'am," said Blount, rising. "But
then, maybe it's just as well that I did. You never can tell what
will come out of these things. We live over a black volcano in this
country all the time. Now, I didn't bring in either one of my
prisoners. I hoped that maybe they would take this fence rail
argument as a sort of temporary equivalent to a term in jail. But to-
morrow I'm going down in there and bring that Sands boy in. We never
dare give an inch in a matter of this kind."

"Do you think they will make any trouble?" said Mrs. Ellison.

"Never you mind about the _trouble_ part of it," said Blount, quietly.
"I reckon he'll come in. I'm going to take a _wagon_ this time. So
that's the kind of luck we had on this b'ah hunt."

He arose to go, and left Mrs. Ellison sitting still in the shaded
room, her fan now at rest, her eyes bent down thoughtfully, but her
foot tapping at the floor. The incidents just related passed quickly
from her mind. She remembered only that, as they talked, this man's
eye had wandered from her own. He was occupied with problems of
politics, of business, of sport, and was letting go that great game
for a strong man, the game of love! She could scarce tell at the
moment whether she most felt for him contempt or hatred--or something
far different from either.