It
really was unsafe for one to dance a clog, with flapping arms and
taunting laughter, within range of those rises, and they told
Donny so.
They ordered him back to the house; they threw clods of earth at
his bare legs; they threatened and they swore, but it was not
until Wally got him by the collar and shook him with brotherly
thoroughness that Donny retreated in great indignation to the
house.
They were just giving themselves wholly up to the sport of
sending little spurts of loose earth into the air as close as was
safe to Stanley, and still much too close for his peace of mind
or that of his fellows, when Donny returned unexpectedly with the
shotgun and an enthusiasm for real bloodshed.
He fired once from the thicket of currant bushes, and, from the
remarks which Stanley barked out in yelping staccato, he
punctured that gentleman's person in several places with the fine
shot of which the charge consisted. He would have fired again if
the recoil had not thrown him quite off his balance, and it is
possible that someone would have been killed as a result.
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