he has also brung me the
means of doing it. Joe,' he says, 'when you stepped in the door there, I
could have shot you dead with my forty-five.' He stepped aside from the
window, where the pistol was laying. 'Take it, Joe,' he says, 'I refuse
to touch it; I have shot my last shoot!' Joe come acrost the room white
as a sheet. 'That's mighty fair of you, Blant,' he says, putting it in
his pocket; 'you held my life in your hand.' 'If it was the life of my
worst enemy,--if it was all the Cheevers put together--it would be the
same,' says Blant; 'I am cured of killing; Rich's death has showed me
the terribleness of it; I shoot no more!' And then seemed like I would
choke if I looked at him another minute, and I run off. And now nothing
haint no use,--Blant's lost his senses, and nothing can't bring him to
'em!" Again he beat the floor despairingly.

[Illustration: "'Take it, Joe, I refuse to touch it, I have shot my last
shoot!'"]

"So far from losing his senses," I said, "he has just come to them. It
took the terrible death of his friend to show him the sacredness of
human life, and the worthlessness of pride, freedom, or land in
comparison with it. This is hard for you to understand, Nucky; but be
sure that this evening Blant has done the greatest, most heroic act of
his life."

The storm of disappointment and anger was too great, however; it
continued to sweep him until he heard the boys coming and hurried away
to bed.

XXVII

TRANSFORMATION

_Wednesday._

Sad news again from Trigger about the babe. "Nothing but a pitiful
little passel of bones," said the mail-boy; "purely dying for lack of
Blant."

Blant's refusal to use his gun last night has spread abroad, and creates
great excitement. "Trojan fotch him his revolver and he wouldn't tech it
or use it," is the talk flying about among the boys. "Aiming to let the
Cheevers keep his land." "Done give up the war." "Haint going to make no
effort to break prison." "Never heared tell of no hero doing such a
way!" "Achilles wouldn't," "Nor Hector, neither." Evidently they feel
bitter disappointment. They do not dare show it before Nucky, however,
or even broach the subject in his presence. I called them in to-night
and talked to them about the superiority of moral courage to
physical,--with, I fear, no great result. How terribly true are Paul's
words, "First the natural man, then"--after what awful birth-pangs,
sometimes as cruel as those Blant is experi