Ned, afore the summer was over, which showed he
wasn't bendin' much, and at the last--just afore Ned went away--the big
quarrel come off. It wasn't the quarrel Miss Huckins knows about, but
it happened right here. They'd sent me away from the house, like they
always did, and I were layin' in the clover in the back yard, when
there was a crash an' a yell. I jumped up an' run to the door, an' the
table was tipped over an' a lot o' papers an' money scattered on the
floor, an' behind the table stood Ol' Swallertail, white an' still, an'
Ned point'n' a gun at him."

"What sort of a gun?" questioned Josie.

"One o' them hip-pocket sort. Same as Jim Bennett the mailman carries.
Only Jim's ain't never loaded, 'cause he's afraid of it. I ain't sure
Ned's was loaded, either, for when he seen me in the doorway he jes'
slipped it in his pocket.

"' Very well,' says Gran'dad, 'I knows now what sort o' a man you are,
Ned Joselyn.' An' Ned he answers back: 'An' I know what sort o' a man
_you_ are, ol' Cragg. Yer a hypercrit through an' through; ye preach
squareness while yer as crooked as a snake, an' as p'isonous an'
deadly, an' ye'd ruin yer bes' friend jes' to git a copper cent the
best o' him.'

"Gran'dad leaned over an' set the table on its legs ag'in. An' then he
says slow an' cold: 'But I hain't offered to murder you; _not yet,_ Ned
Joselyn!'

"Ned looked at him an' kinder shivered. An' Gran'dad said: 'Pick up
them papers an' things, Ingua.'

"So I picked 'em up an' put 'em on the table an' they sent me away
ag'in. I laid in the clover a whole hour, feelin' pretty nervous an'
rocky, fer I didn't know what was goin' to happen. Noth'n' did happen,
though, 'cept that Ned crossed the river on the steppin'-stones an'
halfway over he turned an' laughed an' waved his hand at Gran'dad, who
stood in the door an' watched him go. But Gran'dad didn't laugh. He
says to me when I come in:

"'Ingua, if ever I'm found dead, you go to Dud Berkey, the constable,
an' tell him to arrest Ned Joselyn for murder. D'ye understan'?'

"'I sure do,' says I. 'Guess he'd 'a' shot ye, Gran'dad, if I hadn't
come in just when I did.'

"'An' see here,' he went on, 'unless I'm foun' dead, you keep mum 'bout
what ye seen to-day. If ye blab a word to anyone, ye'll git me in
trouble, an' I'll crush ye as willin' as I'd swat a fly. Me an' Ned is
friends ag'in,' says he, 'but I don't trust him.'

"'Does he trust you?' I asked him; an' at first he jus' l