fle in hand stepped from behind the
barn, full in the presence of his antagonists.

"Ez to my gitten in five minits," he began in his laziest, drowsiest
manner, "we'll see when the time's up. But jest now words hev passed
betwixt my wife and Seth Davis. Afore anythin' else goes on yer, he's
got to take HIS back. My wife allows he lies; I allow he lies too, and I
stan' here to say it."

The right of personal insult to precedence of redress was too old a
frontier principle to be gainsaid now. Both parties held back and
every eye was turned to where Seth Davis had been standing. But he had
disappeared.

Where?

When Mrs. McKinstry hurled her denial from the barn, he had taken
advantage of the greater surprise to leap to one of the trusses of
hay that projected beyond the loft, and secure a footing from which he
quickly scrambled through the open scantling to the interior. The master
who, startled by his voice, had made his way through the loose grain to
the rear, reached it as Seth half crawled, half tumbled through. Their
eyes met in a single flash of rage, but before Seth could utter an
outcry, the master had dropped his gun, seized him around the neck and
crammed a thick handful of the soft hay he had hurriedly snatched up
into his face and gasping mouth. A furious but silent struggle ensued;
the yielding hay on which they both fell deadened all sound of a scuffle
and concealed them from view; masses of it, already loosened by the
intruder's entrance, and dislodged in their contortions began to slip
through the opening to the ground. The master, still uppermost and
holding Seth firmly down, allowed himself to slip with them, shoving
his adversary before him; the maddened Missourian detecting his purpose,
made a desperate attempt to change his position, and succeeded in
raising his knee against the master's chest. Ford, guarding against what
seemed to be only a wrestler's strategy, contented himself by locking
the bent knee firmly in that position, and thus unwittingly gave Seth
the looked-for opportunity of drawing the bowie-knife concealed in his
boot leg. He knew his mistake only as Seth violently freed his arm, and
threw it upward for the blow. He heard the steel slither like a scythe
through the hay, and unlocking his hold desperately threw himself on
the uplifted arm. The movement saved him. For the released body of Seth
slipped rapidly through the opening, upheld for a single instant on the
verge by the grasp