The Falins had opened the
feud that day, for the boy's foster-uncle, Bad Rufe Tolliver,
contrary to the terms of the last truce, had come home from the
West, and one of his kinsmen had been wounded. The boy told what
he had heard while he lay over the road along which some of his
enemies had passed and his father nodded. The Falins had learned
in some way that the lad was going to the Gap that day and had
sent men after him. Who was the spy?
"You TOLD me you was a-goin' to the Gap," said old Dave. "Whar was
ye?"
"I didn't git that far," said the boy.
The old man and Loretta, young Dave's sister, laughed, and quiet
smiles passed between the others.
"Well, you'd better be keerful 'bout gittin' even as far as you
did git--wharever that was--from now on."
"I ain't afeered," the boy said sullenly, and he turned into the
kitchen. Still sullen, he ate his supper in silence and his mother
asked him no questions. He was worried that Bad Rufe had come back
to the mountains, for Rufe was always teasing June and there was
something in his bold, black eyes that made the lad furious, even
when the foster-uncle was looking at Loretta or the little girl in
Lonesome Cove.
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