Chapter 4
Like some old father-bear watching his cub flash teeth against a
stalking lynx, half proud and half fearful of such courage, so the
dying cattleman looked at his son. Excitement set a high and
dangerous color in his cheek. "Pierre—brave boy! Look at me. I
ain't no imitation man, even now, but I ain't a ghost of what I
was. There wasn't no man I wouldn't of met fair and square with
bare hands or with a g*n. Maybe my hands was big, but they were
fast on the draw. I've lived all my life with iron on the hip, and
my six-g*n has seven notches.
"But McGurk downed me fair and square. There wasn't no murder. I
was out for his hide, and he knew it. I done the provokin', an' he
jest done the finishin', that was all. It hurts me a lot to say it,
but he's a better man than I was
