“All right, Jeff,” Pole laughed. “I was only drappin' them hints on my way to my point. Well, Minnie she come back from Atlanta, an' fer three whole days she looked to me like she missed Thad, but she got to goin' with the Thornton boys, an' then Nelson Floyd run across her track. I ain't here to make excuses fer 'im, but she was every bit as much to blame as he was. He's been around some, an' has enough sense to git in out o' the rain, an' I reckon he had his fun, or he wouldn't be a-settin' at Price's Spring waitin' to meet death at the end o' that gun o' yourn.” Jeff Wade turned an undecided, wavering glance upon the towering mountain on his right. He drew a deep breath and seemed about to speak, but checked himself. “But la me! what a stark, ravin' fool you was about to make o' yoreself, Jeff!” Pole went on. “You started to do this thing to-day on yore sister's account, when by doin' it you would bust up her home an' make the rest of her life miserable.” “You mean--” “I mean that Joe Mitchell, that's been dead-stuck on Minnie sence she was a little gal, set up to her an' proposed marriage. They got engaged, an' then every old snaggle-toothed busybody in these mountains set in to try to bust it up by totin' tales about Floyd an' others to 'im. As fast as one would come, Minnie'd kill it, an' show Joe what a foolish thing it was to listen to gossip, an' Joe finally told 'em all to go to hell, an' they was married, an' moved on his farm in Texas. From all accounts, they are doin' well an' are happy, but, la me! they wouldn't be that away long ef you'd 'a' shot Nelson Floyd this mornin'.” “You say they wouldn't, Pole?” “Huh, I reckon _you_ wouldn't dance a jig an' sing hallelujah ef you was to pick up a newspaper this mornin' an' read in type a foot long that yore wife's brother, in another state, had laid a man out stiff as a board fer some'n' that had tuck place sometime back betwixt the man an' her.” “Huh!” Wade's glance was now on Pole's face. “Huh, I reckon you are right, Pole. I reckon you are right. I wasn't thinkin' about that.” “Thar was _another_ duty you wasn't a-thinkin' about, too,” Pole said. “An' that is yore duty to yore wife an' childern that would be throwed helpless on the world ef this thing had 'a' tuck place to-day.” “Well, I don't see _that_, anyway,” said Wade, dejectedly. “Well, I do, Jeff. You see, ef you'd 'a' gone on an' killed Floyd, after I halted you, I'd 'a' been a witness agin you, an' I'd 'a' had to testify that I told you, in so many words, whar the _rale_ blame laid, an' no jury alive would 'a' spared yore neck.” “I reckon that's so,” Wade admitted. “Well, I guess I'll go back, Pole; I won't go any furder with it. I promise you not to molest that scamp. I'll not trade any more at his shebang, an' I'll avoid 'im all I kin, but I'll not kill 'im as I intended.”