"What's the big idea?" he was shouting. "What's the big idea, anyway?"
The daredevil personality of the newcomer awed the fighters. Even if they might have counted him out, there would have been no possibility of going on with the battle without danger to the two women. And to continue the fighting there in the open, where they had met by accident—well, the hillman is no coward, but he wants cover when he fights.
The two little clans acted wisely. As though by a common agreement, they crept off homeward without a word.
The old woman caught the rein of the now quiet horse.
"And who might you be, stranger," she cackled, "'at comes a-ridin' in here like a angel o' the Lord?"
He smiled very pleasantly. "Don't you know me?"
"Not from Adam's off ox, nor a side o' sole-leather!" declared Granny Wolfe.
"I know who it is," said the other of the three left upon the scene. "Granny, it's Little Buck!"
"La, la, la! You don't tell me it's Little Buck. I be consarned ef I'll believe it!" She shook her white head.
