With a movement of irritation he walked to the window, turned and looked at her--bolted it, and came back.
"Where's that gun ?" he said almost rudely.
"I reckon's that would fetch ye," she said, dragging away the hay and disclosing a long trough-like box covered with tarpaulin.

It proved to contain powder, shot, and two guns.

He took one.
"I suppose I may know what I am fighting for ?" he said dryly.
"Ye might say 'Cress' ef they"-- indicating the direction of the reports--"happen to ask ye," she returned with equal sobriety.

"Jess now ye kin take your stand up thar in the loft and see what's comin'." He did not linger, but climbed to the place assigned him, glad to escape the company of the woman who at that moment he almost hated.

In his unreflecting passion for Cressy he had always evaded the thought of this relationship or propinquity; the mother had recalled it to him in a way that imperilled even his passion for the daughter; his mind was wholly preoccupied with the idiotic, exasperating, and utterly hopeless position that had been forced upon him.