WO , men rode down the steep banks of Muddy Run and met in midstream.
One was a brawny, bushy-whiskered man on a proud-stepping saddle-horse, while the other was a lank youth whose angles showed that he had not quite reached his full growth. The youth's horse was a shaggy, bony creature which seemed to have been often exposed to the weather. As the horses reached to drink, the man turned in bis saddle and faced the youth fiercely.
"Ain't I tole you-all to keep away from my girl?"_he demanded. "Po'r, apron-stringed, putterin', shiftless, no-account boy! What for you-uns think teh go with her, eh?"
"Because I 'low she loves me!" the youth drawled, facing the man squarely, but without displaying any emotion.
The man gasped.
"What's that!" he shouted.
Then he plunged at the youth and both fell from, their horses into the running water, where they fought, rolled over and over by the current till they lodged on a gravel bar ten rods down stream. There the man came uppermost, and pounded his opponent's face to his heart's content.
When he ceased, the youth was limp and insensible.
"There, Clint Tazewell!" the man said, "I 'low nex' time Lon Campbell tells ye to keep clear of his, yo'll mind!"
With that he rode away on his horse, while the shaggy mare snuffled over the prostrate figure in the water, wondering what was the matter.
An hour later Tazewell began to recover consciousness. He tried to open his eyes, but found them painfully swollen. He could feel the water lapping against his clothes and, gradually, he remembered what had happened.
The rough clinch at the ford, the fall into the water, the struggle for foothold and fist-freedom were recalled little by little, and at last he sat up and held an eye open to look about him. There was his faithful mare, and up stream was the gash made by the bridle-path in the steep banks of the run.
"Law! Law!" he muttered. "That man done whupped me, he shore did! He beat me all up!"
He rose to his feet, painfully climbed to the saddle and clucked to the mare, telling her to go home, making a sorry figure as he rode along, clinging with both hands to the pommel, his face swollen and his clothes pulled and torn awry. Two of his neighbors saw him pass by. but made no attempt to stop or question him. They had seen Lon Campbell go down the road and they had divined what had happened. They were surprised that young Tazewell had escaped with only a "beating up."
Arriving at his home, Clint dismounted and turned his horse into the pasture. Then he felt his way to the little log house where his mother met him face to face at the door.
"My land, Clint, what has happened?" she cried.
"Campbell—Lon Campbell don hit!" he answered. "He beat me up!"
The mother led her son to a chair before the open fireplace and made him sit down. Then she killed a chicken and bandaged his face with the warm meat next to his skin, soothing him all the while as he choked back the sobs that came into his throat. At last, she had done every thing she could for him.
"Theh!" she said. "You'll soon be all right, Clinty."
"Jes' wait tell I can see!" he gasped suddenly. "Jes' wait tell I can see them
sights!"
"Oh, Clint!" she said. "Don't! Don't! Le's don' have no shootin' up. He's her father. She'd never forgive ye."
He made no reply, and for days after sat in ominous silence while the swelling of the bruises gradually disappeared, leaving his face a ghastly yellow hue.
In a week's time he was working about the little place, shucking corn, cutting wood, and making things snug for the winter. Day by day his mother begged him not to arouse the wrath of the Campbells by killing their leader. Her one convincing argument was:
"His gal never will love you no more, if you kill him."
Nothing else appealed to Clint—much less fear of the numerous Campbells. He felt that there were not enough of them to satisfy his lust for revenge on the family which held itself so much above the Tazewells that they frowned upon his courting pretty Laura. But, of course, he excepted her from the plans of vengeance which he was secretly laying in His heart. His mother convinced him that he must see Laura first.