"
"If you go out to look for him, you're not going armed, are you?"
Reade pursued.
"Armed?" repeated Ferrers, with withering sarcasm. "Oh, no, of
course not. I'm going to ride up to him with my hands high in
the air and let him take a shot at me."
"Jim," drawled Tom, "I'm afraid there's blood in your eye---and not
your own blood, either."
"Didn't that fellow kill my brother in a brawl?" demanded Ferrers.
"Hasn't he pot-shotted at me? And didn't he do it again this
afternoon?"
"Why didn't the law take up Gage's case when your brother was
killed?" Tom inquired.
"Well, you see, Mr. Reade," Ferrers admitted, "my brother had a hasty
temper, and he drew first---but Gage fired the killing shot."
"So that the law would say that Gage fired in self-defense, eh?"
"That's what a coroner's jury did say," Jim admitted angrily.
"But my brother was a young fellow, and hot-headed. Gage knew
he could provoke the boy into firing, and then, when the boy missed,
Gage drilled him through the head.
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