Come on!" [Illustration: Bud Means comes to the rescue of Shocky.] Pete was no insignificant antagonist.

He had been a great fighter, and his well-seasoned arms were like iron.

He had not the splendid set of Bud, but he had more skill and experience in the rude tournament of fists to which the backwoods is so much given.

Now, being out of sight of witnesses and sure that he could lie about the fight afterward, he did not scruple to take advantages which would have disgraced him forever if he had taken them in a public fight on election day or at a muster.

He took the uphill side, and he clubbed his whip-stalk, striking Bud with all his force with the heavy end, which, coward-like, he had loaded with lead.