My wife allows he lies; I allow he lies too, and I stan' here to say it." The right of personal insult to precedence of redress was too old a frontier principle to be gainsaid now.

Both parties held back and every eye was turned to where Seth Davis had been standing.

But he had disappeared.
Where?
When Mrs.McKinstry hurled her denial from the barn, he had taken advantage of the greater surprise to leap to one of the trusses of hay that projected beyond the loft, and secure a footing from which he quickly scrambled through the open scantling to the interior.

The master who, startled by his voice, had made his way through the loose grain to the rear, reached it as Seth half crawled, half tumbled through.

Their eyes met in a single flash of rage, but before Seth could utter an outcry, the master had dropped his gun, seized him around the neck and crammed a thick handful of the soft hay he had hurriedly snatched up into his face and gasping mouth.