"Why don't you shoot?" the stranger again asked.
"Hang the shootin'," Abner growled, as he thumped the gun down upon the ground. "De ye think I'm a brute?"
"Well, I wasn't altogether sure at first by the way you acted. I've often met brutes on four legs which performed in a similar manner, so I was somewhat puzzled."
"An' wasn't there reason?" Abner demanded. "What bizness have ye comin' on to my land?"
"What business? Why, my own, of course."
"An' what's that?"
"Don't you know?"
"Surveyin' my place, eh?"
"Sure; what did you ask me for, then?"
"But who sent ye here? Did Ikey Dimock?"