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His hopes were vain. It so chanced that Kossuth Johns, who had by no means relinquished all idea of dancing at Harrison’s Cove and defying Rick Pearson, had hitherto been detained by his mother’s persistent entreaties, some necessary attentions to his father, and the many trials which beset a man dressing for a party who has very few clothes, and those very old and worn. Jule, his sister-in-law, had been most kind and complaisant, putting on a button here
, sewing up a slit there, darning a refractory elbow, and lending him the one bright ribbon she possessed as a neck-tie. But all these things take time, and the moon did not light Kossuth down the gorge until she was shining almost vertically from the sky, and the Harrison Cove people and the Forty Monks were dancing together in high feather. The ecclesiastic dance halted suddenly, and a watchful light gleamed in old Mr. Kenyon’s eyes as he became silent and the boy stepped into the room. The moonlight and the lamp-light fell mingled on the calm, inexpressive features and tall, slender form of the young mountaineer.”Hy ‘re, Kossute!” A cheerful greeting from many voices met him. The next moment the music ceased once again, and the dancing came to a standstill, for as the name fell on Pearson’s ear he turned, glanced sharply toward the door, and drawing one of his pistols from his belt advanced to the middle of the room. The men fell back; so did the frightened women, without screaming, however, for that indication of feminine sensibility had not yet penetrated to Cheatham’s Cross-Roads, to say nothing of the mountains.

“I told ye that ye warn’t ter come hyar,” said Rick Pearson imperiously, “and ye’ve got ter go home ter yer mammy, right off, or ye’ll never git thar no more, youngster.”

“I’ve come hyar ter put youout, ye cussed red-headed horse thief!” retorted Kossuth, angrily; “ye hed better tell me whar that thar bay filly is, or light out, one.”

It is not the habit in the mountains to parley long on these occasions. Kossuth had raised his gun to his shoulder as Rick, with his pistol cocked, advanced a step nearer. The outlaw’s weapon was struck upward by a quick, strong hand, the little log cabin was filled with flash, roar, and smoke, and the stars looked in through a hole in the roof from which Rick’s bullet had sent the shingles flying. He turned in mortal terror and caught the hand that had struck his pistol, – in mortal terror, for Kossuth was the crack shot of the mountains and he felt he was a dead man. The room was somewhat obscured by smoke, but as he turned upon the man who had disarmed him, for the force of the blow had thrown the pistol to the floor, he saw that the other hand was over the muzzle of young Johns’s gun, and Kossuth was swearing loudly that by the Lord Almighty if he didn’t take it off he would shoot it off.

“My young friend,” Mr. Kenyon began, with the calmness appropriate to a devout member of the one catholic and apostolic church; but then, the old Adam suddenly getting the upper hand, he shouted out in irate tones, “If you don’t stop that noise, I’ll break your head! Well, Mr. Pearson,” he continued, as he stood between the combatants, one hand still over the muzzle of young Johns’s gun, the other, lean and sinewy, holding Pearson’s powerful right arm with a vise-like grip, “well, Mr. Pearson, you are not so good a soldier as you used to be; you didn’t fight boys in the old times.”