"Then I'm sorry I hit you," Turkey conceded. "But all the same, I didn't fire the stack."
"We won't talk about it."
"Yes, we will. If you think I did, I'm pulling out."
"You'll do as you please," Angus said coldly. "You'll come back mighty soon."
"Don't fool yourself," Turkey retorted. "I'm sick of this dam' place, and working day in and day out."
"I've told you what I think of your work. If you're sick of it I'm just as sick of coddling you along. Can't you get it through your head that you're almost a man?"
"Yes," Turkey returned, "and I'm going where I'll be treated like one."
"Then you'll have to change a lot," Angus informed him. "When you behave like one you'll be treated like one, here or anywhere else. Till you do that, you won't. And here it is cold for you, Turkey, with no trimmings: You may go to the devil if you like; but you can't stay on this ranch and do it, because I won't stand for it."
And so, at last, the issue between the brothers, so long pending, lay clear and sharply defined. There was no middle course. For a long minute they looked each other in the face. Then said Turkey:
"You and the ranch can go to hell!"