If somebody shouted "hello"--that universal hail of friend
or enemy in the mountains--from the gate after dark, one or the
other would go out the back door and answer from the shelter of
the corner of the house. Neither sat by the light of the fire
where he could be seen through the window nor carried a candle
from one room to the other. And when either rode down the river,
June must ride behind him to prevent ambush from the bushes, for
no Kentucky mountaineer, even to kill his worst enemy, will risk
harming a woman. Sometimes Loretta would come and spend the day,
and she seemed little less distressed than June. Dave was
constantly in and out, and several times June had seen the Red Fox
hanging around. Always the talk was of the feud. The killing of
this Tolliver and of that long ago was rehearsed over and over;
all the wrongs the family had suffered at the hands of the Falins
were retold, and in spite of herself June felt the old hatred of
her childhood reawakening against them so fiercely that she was
startled: and she knew that if she were a man she would be as
ready now to take up a Winchester against the Falins as though she
had known no other life.
Pages:
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335