90 IN THE OLD WEST 



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 in- 

 variably bloody termination did these encounters 

 become, that they scarcely produced sufficient ex- 

 citement 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 neighborhood, thronged to the 

 scene of action, in a large field in front of the 

 house, where the preliminaries of a duel between 

 Pete and La Bonte were being arranged by their 

 respective friends. 



Mary, when she discovered the mischief her 

 thoughtlessness 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 



