He was both quick-tempered and high-spirited.

Falling back a step, he sprang forward and dealt the bullnecked man a savage blow.

The latter grunted heavily but kept his feet.

In the same instant one of the men who had never taken his eyes off Norton from the moment he quitted the saddle, raised his fist and struck the young planter in the back of the neck.
"You cur!" cried Norton, blind and dizzy, as he wheeled on him.
"Damn him--let him have it!" roared the bullnecked man.
Afterward Norton was able to remember that the three rushed on him, that he was knocked down and kicked with merciless brutality, then consciousness left him.

He lay very still in the trampled dust of the road.