the only thing which had kept me laid up. On my way to the creek I got to thinking over what Ouachita had said, and I thought, well, maybe I was a mite hasty. Maybe Glory did repent of her treatment of me when I was laying wounded. Maybe I ought not to of spoke so bitterly.
I thought, it's no more'n my neighborly duty to go over and thank Glory for coming over to see me, and tell her I didn't mean what I said. I'd tell her I was delirious and thought it was Ellen Reynolds. After all, I was a man with a great, big, generous, forgiving heart, and if forgiving Glory McGraw was going to brighten her life, why, I warn't one to begrudge it. So I headed for the McGraw cabin--a trail I hadn't took since the day I shot up Mister Wilkinson.
I went afoot because I wanted to give my laig plenty of exercise now it was healed. And I hadn't gone more'n halfway when I met the gal I was looking for. She was riding her bay mare, and we met face to face right spang in the middle of the trail. I taken off my Stetson and says: 'Howdy, Glory. You warn't by any chance headin' for my cabin?'
'And why should I be headin' for yore cabin, Mister Elkins?' she said as stiff and cold as a frozen bowie knife.
'Well,' I said, kinda abashed, 'well--uh--that is, Glory, I jest want to thank you for droppin' in to see about me when I was laid up, and--'
'I didn't,' she snapped. 'I jest come to borrer some salt. I didn't even know you'd been hurt.'
'What you want to talk like that for, Glory?' I protested. 'I didn't aim to hurt yore feelin's. Fact is, I war delirious, and thought you was somebody else--'
'Ellen Reynolds, maybe?' says she sneeringly. 'Or was she already there, holdin' yore hand? Oh, no! I'd plumb forgot! She was gittin' married to Jim Braxton about that time! Too bad, Breckinridge! But cheer up! Ellen's got a little sister which'll be growed up in a few years. Maybe you can git her--if some Braxton don't beat you to her.'
'To hell with the Braxtons and the Reynolds too!' I roared, seeing red again. 'And you can go along with 'em, far's I'm consarned! I was right! Ouachita's a fool, sayin' you was sorry for me. You jest come over there to gloat over me when I was laid up!'
'I didn't!' she says, in a changed voice.
'You did, too!' I says bitterly. 'You go yore way and I'll go mine. You think I cain't git me no woman, just because you and Ellen Reynolds turned me down. Well, you-all ain't the only women they is! I ain't goin' to marry no gal on Bear Creek! I'm goin' to git me a town-gal!'
'A town-gal wouldn't look at a hillbilly like you!' she sneered.
'Oh, is that so?' I bellered, convulsively jerking some saplings up by the roots in my agitation. 'Well, lemme tell you somethin', Miss McGraw, I'm pullin' out right now, this very day, for the settlements, where purty gals is thick as flies in watermelon time, and I aim to bring back the purtiest one of the whole kaboodle! You wait and see!'
And I went storming away from there so blind mad that I fell into the creek before I knowed it, and made a most amazing splash. I thought I heard Glory call me to come back, jest before I fell, but I was so mad I didn't pay no attention. I'd had about all the badgering I could stand for one day. I clumb out on t'other side, dripping like a muskrat, and headed for the tall timber. I could hear her laughing behind me, and she must of been kinda hysterical, because it sounded like she was crying instead of laughing, but I didn't stop to see. All I wanted was to put plenty of distance between me and Glory McGraw, and I headed for home as fast as I could laig it.
It was my fullest intention to saddle Cap'n Kidd and pull out for Chawed Ear or somewheres as quick as I could. I meant what I said about getting me a town-gal. But right then I was fogging head-on into the cussedest mix-up I'd ever saw, up to that time, and didn't know it. I didn't even get a inkling of it when I almost stumbled over a couple of figures locked in mortal combat on the bank of the creek.
I was surprised when I seen who it was. The folks on Bear Creek ain't exactly what you'd call peaceable by nature, but Erath Elkins and his brother-in-law Joel Gordon had always got along well together, even when they was full of corn juice. But there they was, so tangled up they couldn't use their bowies to no advantage, and their cussin' was scandalous to hear.
Remonstrances being useless, I kicked their knives out of their hands and throwed 'em bodily into the creek. That broke their holds and they come swarming out with blood-thirsty shrieks and dripping whiskers, and attacked me. Seeing they was too blind mad to have any sense, I bashed their heads together till they was too dizzy to do anything but holler.
'Is this any way for relatives to ack?' I ast disgustedly.
'Lemme at him!' howled Joel, gnashing his teeth whilst blood streamed down his whiskers. 'He's broke three of my fangs and I'll have his life!'
'Stand aside, Breckinridge!' raved Erath. 'No man can chaw a ear offa me and live to tell the tale.'
'Aw, shet up,' I snorted. 'Ca'm down, before I sees is yore fool heads harder'n this.' I brandished a large fist under their noses and they subsided sulkily. 'What's all this about?' I demanded.
'I jest discovered my brother-in-law is a thief,' said Joel bitterly. At that Erath give a howl and a vi'lent plunge to get at his relative, but I kind of pushed him backwards, and he fell over a willer stump.
'The facks is, Breckinridge,' says Joel, 'me and this here polecat found a buckskin poke full of gold nuggets in a holler oak over on Apache Ridge yesterday, right nigh the place whar yore brother Garfield fit them seven wildcats last year. We didn't know whether somebody in these parts had jest hid it thar for safe-keepin', or whether some old prospector had left it thar a long time ago and maybe got sculped by the Injuns and never come back to git it. We agreed to leave it alone for a month, and if it was still thar when we come back, we'd feel purty shore that the original owner was dead, and we'd split the gold between us. Well, last night I got to worryin' lest somebody'd find it which warn't as honest as me, so this mornin' I thought I better go see if it was still thar...'
At this p'int Erath laughed bitterly.
Joel glared at him ominously and continued: 'Well, no sooner I hove in sight of the holler tree than this skunk let go at me from the bresh with a rifle-gun--'
'That's a lie!' yelped Erath. 'It war jest the other way around!'
'Not bein' armed, Breckinridge,' Joel said with dignity, 'and realizin' that this coyote was tryin' to murder me so he could claim all the gold, I laigged it for home and my weppin's. And presently I sighted him sprintin' through the bresh after me.'
Erath begun to foam slightly at the mouth. 'I warn't chasin' you!' he howled. 'I war goin' home after my rifle-gun.'
'What's yore story, Erath?' I inquired.
'Last night I drempt somebody had stole the gold,' he answered sullenly. 'This mornin' I went to see if it was safe. Jest as I got to the tree, this murderer begun shootin' at me with a Winchester. I run for my life, and by some chance I finally run right into him. Likely he thought he'd hived me and was comin' for the sculp.'
'Did either one of you see t'other'n shoot at you?' I ast.
'How could I, with him hid in the bresh?' snapped Joel. 'But who else could it been?'
'I didn't have to see him,' growled Erath. 'I felt the wind of his lead.'
'But each one of you says he didn't have no rifle,' I said.
'He's a cussed liar,' they accused simultaneous, and would have fell onto each other tooth and nail if they could have got past my bulk. 'I'm convinced they'd been a mistake,' I said. 'Git home and cool off.'
'Yo're too big for me to lick, Breckinridge,' said Erath. 'But I warn you, if you cain't prove to me that it warn't Joel which tried to murder me, I ain't goin' to rest nor sleep nor eat till I've nailed his mangy sculp to the highest pine on Apache Ridge.'
'That goes for me, too,' says Joel, grinding his teeth. 'I'm declarin' truce till tomorrer mornin'. If Breckinridge cain't show me by then that you didn't shoot at me, either my wife or yore'n'll be a widder before midnight.'
So saying they stalked off in oppersite directions, whilst I stared helplessly after 'em, slightly dazed at the responsibility which had been dumped onto me. That's the drawback of being the biggest man in yore settlement. All the relatives piles their trouble onto you. Here it was up to me to stop what looked like the beginnings of a regular family feud which was bound to reduce the population awful. I couldn't go sparking me no town-gal with all this hell brewing.
The more I thought of the gold them idjits had found, the more I felt like I ought to go and take a look at it myself, so I went back to the corral and saddled Cap'n Kidd and lit out for Apache Ridge. From the remarks they'd
