“Then we tuk a short cut an' overtuk 'em agin, an' we drapt another.”
Aunt Debby's eyes expressed surprise at this continued good fortune.
“An' then we tuk 'nuther short cut, an' saved 'nuther one.”
Aunt Debby waited for him to continue.
“At last—jess ez they come ter the Ford—I seed OUR man.”
“Seed Kunnel Bill Pennington?” The great gray eyes were blazing now.
“Yes.” Fortner's speech was the spiritless drawl of the mountains, and it had now become so languid that it seemed doubtful if after the enunciation of each word whether vitality enough remained to evolve a successor. “Yes,” he repeated with a yawn, as he stuck the ball of yarn upon the needles and gave the whole a toss which landed it in the wall-basket, “an' I GOT him, tew.”
“O, just God! Air ye shore?”
“Jess ez shore ez in the last great day thar'll be some 'un settin' in judgement atween him an' me. I wanted him ter be jess ez shore about me. I came out in plain sight, and drawed his attention. He knowed me at fust glimpse, an' pulled his revolver. I kivered his heart with the sights an' tetcht the trigger. I'm sorry now thet I didn't shoot him thru the belly, so thet he'd been a week a-dyin' an' every minnit he'd remembered what he wuz killed fur. But I wuz so afeered that I would not kill him ef I hit him some place else'n the heart—thet's a wayall pizen varmints hev—thet I didn't da'r resk hit. I wuz detarmined ter git him, too, ef I had ter foller him clean ter Cumberland Gap.”
“Ye done God's vengeance,” said Aunt Debby sternly. “An' yit hit wuz very soon ter expect hit.” She clasped her hands upon her forehead and rocked back and forth, gazing fixedly into the mass of incandescent coals.