Scully was
immovable as from supreme amazement and fear at the fury of the fight
which he himself had permitted and arranged.

For a time the encounter in the darkness was such a perplexity of
flying arms that it presented no more detail than would a swiftly
revolving wheel. Occasionally a face, as if illumined by a flash of
light, would shine out, ghastly and marked with pink spots. A moment
later, the men might have been known as shadows, if it were not for
the involuntary utterance of oaths that came from them in whispers.

Suddenly a holocaust of warlike desire caught the cowboy, and he
bolted forward with the speed of a broncho. "Go it, Johnnie! go it!
Kill him! Kill him!"

Scully confronted him. "Kape back," he said; and by his glance the
cowboy could tell that this man was Johnnie's father.

To the Easterner there was a monotony of unchangeable fighting that
was an abomination. This confused mingling was eternal to his sense,
which was concentrated in a longing for the end, the priceless end.
Once the fighters lurched near him, and as he scrambled hastily
backward he heard them breathe like men on the rack.

"Kill him, Johnnie! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" The cowboy's face
was contorted like one of those agony masks in museums.

"Keep still," said Scully, icily.

Then there was a sudden loud grunt, incomplete, cut short, and
Johnnie's body swung away from the Swede and fell with sickening
heaviness to the grass. The cowboy was barely in time to prevent the
mad Swede from flinging himself upon his prone adversary. "No, you
don't," said the cowboy, interposing an arm. "Wait a second."

Scully was at his son's side. "Johnnie! Johnnie, me boy!" His voice
had a quality of melancholy tenderness. "Johnnie! Can you go on with
it?" He looked anxiously down into the bloody, pulpy face of his son.

There was a moment of silence, and then Johnnie answered in his
ordinary voice, "Yes, I--it--yes."

Assisted by his father he struggled to his feet. "Wait a bit now till
you git your wind," said the old man.

A few paces away the cowboy was lecturing the Swede. "No, you don't!
Wait a second!"

The Easterner was plucking at Scully's sleeve. "Oh, this is enough,"
he pleaded. "This is enough! Let it go as it stands. This is enough!"

"Bill," said Scully, "git out of the road." The cowboy stepped aside.
"Now." The combatants were actuated by a new caution as they advanced
towards collision. They glared at each oth