58 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



centre of the cornshellers, he hurled it at his rival, and 

 crying to him, hoarse with passion, "to follow if he 

 was a man," he left the house. 



At that time, and even now, in the remoter States of 

 the western country, rifles settled even the most trivial 

 differences between the hot-blooded youths ; and of 

 such frequent occurrence and invariably bloody termi- 

 nation did these encounters become, that they scarcely 

 produced sufficient excitement to draw together half-a- 

 dozen spectators. 



In the present case, however, so public was the 

 quarrel, and so well-known the parties concerned, that 

 not only the people who had witnessed the affair, but 

 all the neighbourhood, thronged to the scene of action, 

 in a large field in front of the house, where the pre- 

 liminaries of a duel between Pete and La Bonte were 

 being arranged by their respective friends. 



Mary, when she discovered the mischief her thought- 

 lessness was likely to occasion, was almost beside herself 

 with grief, but she knew how vain it would be to 

 attempt to interfere. The poor girl, who was most 

 ardently attached to La Bonte, was carried swooning 

 into the house, where all the women congregated, and 

 were locked in by old Brand, who, himself an old 

 pioneer, thought but little of bloodshed, but refused to 

 let the " women folk" witness the affray. 



Preliminaries arranged, the combatants took up their 

 respective positions at either end of a space marked for 

 the purpose, at forty paces from each other. They 

 were both armed with heavy rifles, and had the usual 



