He squeezed my hand as he spoke, and the next instant I was restored to my usual calmness, as far as the prying eyes which were fastened upon us could discover.
"Am I to be kept waiting all day for the young feller to say his prayers?" roared the bully, who began to grow impatient for blood.
"Don't let him call again," said Charley; "if he does, the people will think we are rather backward to meet him. Sympathy is now all on our side, and we must not lose it."
"I am ready," replied Fred, after a brief inspection of his revolver.
"That's right—are you certain that those caps are not damp? Do you want any thing? Can I do any thing for you?"
With these questions, and half a dozen others in the same breath, which Charley asked as rapidly as though there was not a moment to spare, Fred was conducted near his adversary, who uttered an exclamation when he saw him, that was intended for an intimidation.
"Where shall I hit the d——d Yankee?" he cried, brandishing his pistol. "I'll pepper him just where you tell me to, and afterwards we'll drink his speedy passage to—"
The balance of the exclamation was so shocking that his only friend checked him by asking if his pistol was well loaded.
"It's loaded well enough to kill that d——d pup. I say, what a joke it will be! I kill a d——d Yankee with a Yankee's pistol. I suppose they want to thin the breed off."
The bully's words, instead of intimidating Fred, had a contrary effect, for I saw by his eyes that his mind was made up, and all feeling of compassion was banished from his bosom.