Joel hung his head.

"I reckon I ain't a-goin' to tell you." "You're ashamed of it ?" Joel's silence answered that.
"You said something about me ?" Lucy could not resist her curiosity, back of which was a little heat.

"It must have been--bad--else Van wouldn't have struck you." "He hit me--he knocked me flat," passionately said Joel.
"And you drew a gun on him ?" "I did, an' like a fool I didn't wait till I got up.

Then he kicked me! ...

Bostil's Ford will never be big enough fer me an' Van now." "Don't talk foolish.