The white anger faded from the face of the tall giant as quickly as it had come. The fire passed from his eyes. His homely face was lit by a kindly smile. He hitched up his trousers and pushed back his hair. Then with his hand warmly grasped around that of Armstrong he said, "Hand-shakes are better than cuffin's. It's friends we are." A shout went up, the women shouting with the men. Among those who cheered most heartily was the group of girls with whom Ann Rutledge stood. So interested had she been in the climax of the contest she had not noticed that John McNeil had moved to a place beside her. She did not know it until, in the midst of her most enthusiastic hand-clapping, she turned and met his eye. Her face was bright with pleasure at the outcome. She was laughing and cheering. When she met his eye she knew he was not pleased. "I told you he'd be one of the gang," McNeil said. "But he plays fair." "I never could understand why women and girls like the fighting kind, the rowdy kind--the kind that has roustabout ways, and that has no business, and opposes religion." "But are you sure he opposes religion?" "These fighting roustabouts generally do. Now don't get mixed. I'm not saying Abe Lincoln's not a good fellow. He's good enough of his kind, and I like him. But for women and girls that's religious, he wouldn't be my kind." "I'm going to find out if he opposes religion," Ann said. "Going over to the store to see him?" John questioned. "No; I would so like to talk with him just once. But I won't because----" "Why?" he asked, looking at her. "Because, John, some way I feel you would not like it. I'm promised to you, and I play fair." He made no answer, but some way Ann felt that her statement was not altogether satisfactory to John McNeil. CHAPTER IX "THOU SHALT NOT COVET" The wrestling match, that proved the championship of Sangamon River, established Abe Lincoln with his love of peace and his unlimited reserve of physical power to enforce it, as the peace-maker of New Salem. The following day John Rutledge called at the store. John Rutledge, with his partner Cameron, was the founder of New Salem. Some few years before, he had come from Kentucky with his family, bought a farm a few miles to the west, built a mill at New Salem, and opened a store and a tavern. Within a year, ten log houses had been added to the original two. A cobbler and a blacksmith had shops. Then a few more houses were built, and a cooper mill where crude barrels and kegs were made. John Rutledge, a descendant of the famous Rutledge family of the Carolinas, possessed the manly qualities of his ancestors in full measure, and pioneer life had by no means obliterated those instincts which make generous friends and progressive citizens.