Both men stood hearkening. Loud words came up the stairs.
"Your son stepped down into the street, Judge," said Ravenel. The next instant the three rushed out and down the stairway.
John had gone down to see the two armed bands move off. They had been gone but a few minutes when he noticed General Halliday, finely mounted, come from a stable behind the hotel and trot smartly toward him. The few store-keepers left in town stared in contemptuous expectation, but to John this was Fannie's father, and the boy longed for something to occur which might enable him to serve that father in a signal way and so make her forever tenderly grateful. The telegraph office was up these same stairs on the other side of the landing opposite the Courier office; most likely the General was going to send despatches. John's gaze followed the gallant figure till it disappeared in the doorway at the foot of the staircase.
Near the bottom the General and the editor met and passed. The editor stopped and cursed the General. "You jostled me purposely, sir!"
Halliday turned and smiled. "Jim Haggard, why should you shove me and then lie about it? can't you pick a fight for the truth?"
"Don't speak to me, you white nigger! Are you armed?"
"Yes!"
"Then, Launcelot Halliday," yelled the editor, backing out upon the sidewalk and drawing his repeater, "I denounce you as a traitor, a poltroon, and a coward!" Men darted away, dodged, peeped, and cried—
"Look out! Don't shoot!" But John ran forward to the rescue.
"Put that thing up!" he called to the editor, in boyish treble. "Put it up!"