ive. I
know that if you give the Cracker a cause he will do most anything, but
have I given him a cause?"

"You have given him all the excuse he wants. One more bench. That's it.
And now the fury of their fight will depend upon the quantity of liquor
they have with them. I didn't tell any of the home folks that I was
coming here--told them that I might meet you and that we might not be
home until late. I wouldn't be surprised----"

Out in the woods there was the blunt bark of a short gun, the window
glass was splintered in a circle, a sharp zip and a piece of the clay
"chinking" flew from the opposite wall.

"What did I tell you?" said Alf, looking at me as if pleased with the
proof of his forecast. "You get over on that side and I'll stay here.
Get down on the floor and look through between the logs if you can find
a place, and if you can't punch out the dirt, but be easy; they might
see you. There he is again." The glass in the other window was
shattered. "That's all right," said Alf. "They may charge on us after a
while, and then we'll let them have it. Have you found a place?"

"I have made one," I answered, lying flat on the floor, gazing out. No
shot had been fired from my side, and I had begun to think that the
entire force was confronting Alf when in the sobering light I saw a man
standing beside a tree not more than fifty yards distant. He appeared to
be talking to some one, for I saw him look round and nod his head. I did
not want to kill him, although the law was plainly on my side, but a man
may stand shoulder to shoulder with the law and yet wound his own
conscience. Another figure came within sight, among the bushes,
appearing to rise out of the leafy darkness, and then there came a loud
shout: "Come out of there, you coward!"

"Don't say a word," said Alf. "They are trying to locate you. I don't
see anybody yet, and it's getting most too dark now. But I reckon we'd
both better fire to let them know that there is more than one of us. We
don't want to take any advantage of them, you know," he added,
laughing.

"It doesn't look as if we were," I answered. "I could kill one of them,
Alf."

"The devil you could! Then do it. Here, let me get at him."

"No," I replied, waving him off from my peep-hole. "It is better not to
kill him until we are forced to."

"But we are forced to now, don't you see? They've shot at us. There you
are!" They had fired a volley, it seemed. "Let me get at him," said Alf.