This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...your father was a bit afraid of me, and he brought his upstart son with him to keep up his courage. He didn't dare tackle me himself, so he set on his son to do it. He took a mean advantage of me, too, and got at me before I was ready. That's how I got these marks. But didn't I pay him out for it? Didn't I give him 'fits'? Ask Jenkins." "That you did, old man," said Jenkins. "He had the licking of his life. Well, I must be going now. Goodnight, Mrs. Barnes. I congratulate you again. You've got a white man, through and through. Take it from me, there are no flies on Barnes. Good-night." He left the room as he spoke, and Peg and Barnes were together. For some seconds there was a silence between them. The girl did not know what to say, or what to think. She was utterly bewildered by the scene, and although she did not quite realize it at the time, was nauseated at the sight of the man she had chosen to be her husband. She felt helpless, too. Never before had even a suggestion of such a thing happened to her. She supposed hat there was some truth in the story of Barnes giving John a thrashing, and she felt rather glad of it. More than once she had been angry at the contempt which her brother had shown towards him, and now she had a kind of joy that John had been what Barnes had termed "paid out." True, John was only a boy, and while quite as tall as her husband, he was not nearly so big, or strong. That went without saying, and yet there were doubts at the back of her mind. She could not help remembering the look on Jenkins' face when Barnes had spoken to him. But oh, the vulgarity of the thing! What did her father think of it all? Still she would make the best of it, and with a kind of blind loyalty she...