head to foot, and my toes
are snappin' inside of the moccasins. Lord, who'd a thought that the
blood in the veins of a man whose head is whitenin' could be sot leapin'
as mine is doin' at this minit by the scrapin' of a fiddle!"

The Lad was a picture to see. His bow flew like lightning. His long
fingers drummed and slid along the strings of the violin with
bewildering swiftness. The little instrument jetted and effervesced its
melody. The continuous and resounding noise poured out of it in tuneful
bubbles. The air was filled with tinkling fragments of sound. The Lad's
body swayed to and fro. His face glowed. His eyes flashed. The sweat
stood in drops on his forehead, but still the bow snapped and crinkled,
and the instrument continued to burst in musical explosions, while the
floor shook, the windows rattled, and the lamps flared and fluttered, as
the dancers chased the music on.

[Illustration: "_The music stopped with a snap._"]

"Heavens and arth!" said the Trapper. "I can't stand this," and breaking
from the hold that Herbert had on him, whirled himself out to the
centre of the floor and, with his face aflame with excitement and his
white hair flying abroad, led the jig men off with a lightness of foot
and quickness of stroke that forced the music by half a beat. The effect
was electric. The room burst into applause, and the Lad fetched a stroke
that seemed to rip the violin asunder. It was now a race between the
violin and the dancers. One after another fell out of the circle as the
moments passed, until the Trapper was left alone and was cutting it down
in a fashion that both astonished and convulsed the company. More than
one of the spectators went on to the floor in paroxysms of laughter.
Herbert, bent over with his hands on his knees, was watching the Trapper
with mouth stretched to its utmost and streaming eyes.

It is impossible to say which would have triumphed, had not an accident
decided the contest and brought the jig to an abrupt termination. For
even while the Lad was in the midst of the swiftest execution, the hind
legs of the chair in which he was sitting were whipped from their
fastenings, his heels went into the air, he turned half a somersault
backward and the music stopped with a snap.

It was minutes before a word could be heard. Roars and shrieks and
screams of irrepressible and uncontrollable merriment shook the house
from foundation to garret. The Lad picked himself up and for the first