Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-28

men at the windows, Harrison strobe de-
liberately towards him.
"That kin wait, - he said; "jest now
we propose to take you and your letters
and drop 'em and you outer this yer
township of Iniin Springs. You kin take
'em back to the woman or critter you got
'em of. But we kalkilate you re little
too handy and free in them sorter things
to teach school round yer, and we kinder
allow we don t keer. to have our gals and
boys dedicated up to your high toned
standard. So eff you choose to KEN along
easy we II max you conf BILE on boss
we've got waitln outside, an escort you
acrSs the line. Eff you don tive II take
you anyway
The master cast q rapid glance around
him. In his quickness of perception he
had already noted that the led horse
among the cavalcade was fastened by q
lariat TO one of the riders so that escape
by flight was impossible, and that he had
not single weapon TO defend himself
with or even provoke, in his desperation,
the struggle that could forestall ignominy
by death. Nothing was left him but his
voice, clear and trenchant rs he faced
them.
"Yous are twelve to one - he said
calmly, ''but if there is single man
among you who dare step forward and
accuse me of what you only together dare
do, l will tell him he is liar and cow
ard and stand here ready to make it
good against him. You coLHe here Is
judge and jury condemniug me without Il
trial and confronting me with no accus-
erS; you come here rs lawfss avengers
of your honor, and you dare not give me
the privilege of as TaMlessly defending
my own.
There was another slight murmur
among the men, but the leader moved
impatiently forward. "We've had
enough O. your preachin' we want
you, - he said roughly. "Come. 1"
''Stop, - said Il duh voice.
1t came from n mute figure which had
remained motionless among the others
Every eye was turned upon it rs it rose
and lazily pushed the cloth frsyaeltss
face.
''IIiram McKinstry.'' said the others
in mingled tones of astonishment and
suspicion.
THAT 5 me.' said McKnstry coming
forward with heavy deliberation. 81
joined this yer delegation at the cross
roads instead o my brother who had the,
L
better. For perpose to take this yer
gentleman OF your hands -
He lifted his slumbrous eyes for the
first time to the master, and at the
same time put himself between him
and Harrison. - perpose, - he con-
tinued, ''tO take him at his word. l
perpose ter give him chance to answer
with gun. And ez l reckon, by all ac-
counts, there s no man yer ez hez Il bet
ter right than me, l perpoSe to be the
man to put that question to him in the
same way. 1t may not suit some gents, -
he continued slowly facing an angry ex-
clamation from the lauk figure behind
him, ''eZ would perfer to hev eleven
men to take up their private quo Ills, but
even then l reckon that the man who is
the most injured hez the right to the first
say and that man s me. -
With q careful elaboration that had Il
double significance to the malcontents,
he handed his own rifle to the master,
and without looking at him continued.
81 reckon, sir, you We seen that afore,
but eff it ain t quite to your hand, any of
those gents, l kalkilate, will be high
toned enuff to Civ you the chyce o theirs.
And there's no need o. trapsin beyon
the township lines to fix this yer affair; 1
propose to do it i'll ten minutes in the
brush yOnder.
Whatever might have been the feel
ings and intentions of the men around
him, the precedence of McKinstry's
right to the duello was a principle too
deeply rooted i'll their traditions TO deny;
if any resistance to it had been cOntem-
plated by some of them, the fact that the
master was now armed, and that Mr..
McKinstry would quickly do battle at his
side with revolver in defense of his
rights, checked any expression. The
silently drew brcl as the master and Nc
Kinstry slowly passed out of the schooly
house together, and then followed in
their rear. In that interval the master
turned to McKinstry and said in a low
voice-''I accept your challenge and
thank you for it. You have never done
me greater kindness-whatever have
done to you-yet l want you to believe
that neither now nor them meant you
any harm.
''Ef you mean by that, sir, that We
reckon We won t return my fire, ye're
blind and wrong. For it will do you no
good with them, - he said with a signifi-
cant wave of his crippled hand toward
the following crowd, "nor me neither. -
Firmly resolved, however, that he
would not fire at McKinstry, and clinging
blindly to this which he believed was the
last idea of his foolish life, he continued
on without another word until they
reached the open strip OF chemisal that
fanked the clearing.
ITO be Continued Ncrt Week.)