"You're ashamed of it?"
Joel's silence answered that.
"You said something about me?" Lucy could not resist her curiosity, back of which was a little heat. "It must have been—bad—else Van wouldn't have struck you."
"He hit me—he knocked me flat," passionately said Joel.
"And you drew a gun on him?"
"I did, an' like a fool I didn't wait till I got up. Then he kicked me! ... Bostil's Ford will never be big enough fer me an' Van now."
"Don't talk foolish. You won't fight with Van.... Joel, maybe you deserved what you got. You say some—some rude things."
"I only said I'd pay you back," burst out Joel.
"How?"
"I swore I'd lay fer you—an' steal your clothes—so you'd have to run home naked."