"Yes, over in the grove."
"All right. Got him there? I don"t care whether he"s gentle or not. I can manage him all right. The first thing one of you farmers tells a fellow is that his horse is gentle, when he knows that all he wants is an opportunity to run away. So you may save yourself that trouble."
Milford conducted him to a spot out of view from the house. He halted and threw his hat on the ground. He told him what the hired man had said.
"Well," said Dorsey, "this is a fine proceeding."
"Take off your coat."
"What are you going to do?"
"Whip you if I can."
"But I"m not looking for any trouble."
"You may not have looked for it, but you"ve found it."
"Say, this is all nonsense. You won"t tell me what I said, and I don"t remember. But let me tell you something. You can"t whip me. I can mop the earth with you--my way. Is that the way you want to fight?"
"Yes. _My_ way would mean something. But it won"t do in this country.
Take off your coat."
The fellow was an athlete. Milford was no match for him. He had the strength, but not the skill in boxing. But once Milford got him down, ran under and s.n.a.t.c.hed his feet from under him. In a moment, though, he was up again, meeting strength with skill. Three times he knocked Milford down. It was useless to continue to fight. Milford held up his hands. "We"ll call it off for the present," he said, panting.
"Suit yourself. I"ve got nothing to fight about except to keep from getting licked, and it"s for you to say when to stop."
"Well, I say stop, for the present. I haven"t been used to fighting your way. I"m from the West, and if I had you there we"d soon settle it. It"s not over with as it is. I"ll see you again. Do you expect to come back out here this summer?"
"Well, I"m not going to let you keep me away. You don"t know what you"ve run up against, young fellow. I teach boxing in town. That"s my lay."
"All right. I"ll see you again."
"But my way, understand. Don"t come any Western business on me."
"I"ll see you again and your way. I never was beaten long at a time."
"Good enough. Got through seeing me about the horse?"
"I"m through. No, wait a moment. If you go back to the house and say anything about this affair, I"ll try you the Western way. Do you understand?"
"Oh, it"s nothing to me. I won"t mention it. Good-day. I"ll take care of your horse."
Milford went home, covered with blood. He washed himself and lay down under the walnut tree to steam in his anger. His lip was cut and his cheek was bruised. He jumped up suddenly, ran into the house and took two pistols out of a battered leather bag, but he put them back and sat down in the door to cool. The hired man came around the corner of the house.
"I guess you must have found him," he said, halting with a smile and a nod.
"Yes, and he was too much for me. But I"ll get even with him."
"That"s the way to look at it. May take a long time, but it"s to come round all right. I used to drive a team in Chicago. And one day I had to cuss the driver of a coal wagon, and he ups with a lump of coal and smashes my face. I was a long time getting even with him, but I got there."
"Did you kill him?"
"Kill him! Well, I should say not. I didn"t have enough money to kill him and get away with it. I just waited, watchin" him close every time I saw him. And one day he jumped off his wagon, slipped on the ice and broke his leg. Satisfied me, and after that I turned him loose."
"Bob, do you know anything about boxing?"
"I used to be somethin" of a sc.r.a.pper. Why?"
"I want you to teach me."
"Don"t believe I"d be a very good teacher. But, say, I know a feller that"s all right. He used to be a sort of a prize fighter and he"s now got a little saloon up here at Antioch, "bout ten miles up the road. His name"s Mulligan."
"All right. You go ahead with your work just as if I was with you. I"m going up there."
"Sure enough? All right. When I get through with one thing I"ll go at another."
Milford trudged off across the fields toward the village of Antioch. At a well beneath a tree where cows stood in the shade, he stopped to bathe his face. He saw his dark countenance wrinkling in the disturbed water; he committed the natural folly of talking to himself. "You are a fool,"
he said, looking down into his wavering eye. "You are a fool, and you want to prove it." He smiled to think how easy it was to produce the testimony. In such cases nature cheerfully gives her deposition.
He continued his way across the fields, through a skirt of wooded land and out into a road. Bicycles crackled past him. A buggy overtook him.
Some one spoke. He looked round and recognized the "discoverer" and the Norwegian. It was only a two-seated vehicle, but they invited him to ride. He declined to accept their kindness, trying to hide his face. He said that he had heard Mrs. Stuvic say that the buggy was not strong.
They were going to the village of Lake Villa. They might stop at the mill and have a word with the Professor. Milford remarked that the Professor would no doubt be pleased to see them, but that he was no doubt very busy. They drove on without having noticed the wounds on his face. To one not bent upon a vengeful mission, to a thoughtful man with a mind in tone with the scented air, the soft sky, the spread of green, the gleam of water, the clouds of blackbirds, such a stroll would have been rich with an inner music played upon many sweet chords. At a crossroads stood an old brick house, an ancient rarity upon a landscape white-spotted with wooden cottages. It was a rest for the eye, a place for a moment of musing, a page of a family"s record, a bit of dun-colored history. It was built long before the railroad set the clocks of the country, before man entered into business copartnership with the minute and employed the second as his agent. It was a relief to look upon a worn door-sill, a rotting window-blind hanging by one hinge.
In the years long gone the congressman"s carriage, laboring through the mud, had halted there, and the statesman had warmed himself at a fire of wood, delighting an old Whig with predictions of a glorious victory. At this place Milford halted to get a drink of water and to sit for a few moments in the shade. A man came out and asked him if he wanted a team.
He had a team that would not run away. He was not prepared to take boarders, but when it came to a team he was there. He had driven great men, pork-packers of Chicago. The man who owned the enormous ice-house over on the lake had ridden with him. And it was probably one of the largest ice-houses in the world. It took thousands of dollars the year before to paint it. Milford told him that he did not want a team, and the fellow shambled off in disgust.
There was not much time to be wasted, for the sun was now far over toward the west. Milford"s anger had settled into a cool determination, and he walked easier, not so hard upon the ground. He began to notice more things, a cat sitting at a window, looking out upon the narrow world, a boy with a goat harnessed to a wagon, a farmer who starved his boarders, hauling veal to the railway, to be shipped to town. He fell in with a tramp and divided smoking tobacco with him. They strolled along together.
"Beautiful country to walk through," said Milford.
"That"s no lie," said the tramp.
"But all countries are about the same when times are hard, I should think," Milford remarked.
"That"s no pipe," said the tramp.
"They tell us, however, that we are to have better times."
"They are smokin"," said the tramp.
Their roads separated, and they parted company. The sun was down when Milford reached the village. It was an easy matter to find Mulligan"s saloon. One of the oldest citizens pointed it out. Mulligan was half-dozing behind his bar. Several men were at a table, playing cards.
Milford made short work of his introduction. He told his story. There was but one way to get even. Mulligan laughed. That sort of revenge appealed to his Irish heart. He would give lessons, and it should not cost a cent. He put out his whisky bottle. His face beamed. He was glad to meet a civilized man. The very fact that Milford had come on such a mission was a proof of an improvement in the country.
"Dorsey," he said. "Dorsey. He can"t box; I never heard of him. Well, we"ll make a jelly out of his face."
They went out to supper together. "This man has heard of me and has come miles to get lessons," said Mulligan to the tavern keeper.
They boxed till late at night and shook hands warmly at parting.
Earnestness is genius, and when Milford set out for home, the moon on his right shoulder, he felt that he had made surprising progress. It was nearly daylight when he reached the end of his journey. The hired man was going out to the barn.