Rifles were as important to pioneers as plows, and their skillful use was an achievement every frontiersman tried to attain.

Friendly rivalry had always existed among the members of the Isbel family: even Ann Isbel was a good shot.
But such proficiency in the use of firearms--and life in the open that was correlative with it--had not dominated them as it had Jean.

Bill and Guy Isbel were born cattlemen--chips of the old block.

Jean began to hope that his father's letter was an exaggeration, and particularly that the fatalistic speech of last night, "they are goin' to kill me," was just a moody inclination to see the worst side.

Still, even as Jean tried to persuade himself of this more hopeful view, he recalled many references to the peculiar reputation of Texans for gun-throwing, for feuds, for never-ending hatreds.