Bull Hunter | Page 5

shrank from his outstretched hand--as though she had labored
to a larger end than she dreamed and was terrified by the thing she had

made.
"You--you got a red stain on your hands. Oh!"
He came to a stop sharply. The sharp edges, where the roots had been
cut away had worked through the skin and his hands were literally
caked with mud and stained red. Bull looked down at his hands
vaguely.
It came to Harry that Bull was taking up a trifle too much of Jessie's
attention. The next thing they knew she would be inviting him to come
to the next dance down her way, and they would have the big hulk of a
man shaming himself and his uncle's family.
"Go on back to the house," he ordered sharply. "We don't have no more
need of you."
Bull obeyed, stumbling along and still looking down at his wounded
hands.

CHAPTER 2
He left the three behind him, bewildered and frightened. Had lightning
split a thick tree beside them, or an unexpected landslide thundered past
and swept the ground away at their feet, they could have been hardly
more disturbed.
"Who'd of thought he could act like that!" remarked Joe. "My gosh,
Jessie!"
They went and looked at the hole where the stump had stood. At the
bottom was the white remnant of the taproot where it had burst under
the strain.
"It wasn't so much how he pulled up the stump," said the girl faintly.
"But--but did you see his face, boys, after he heaved the stump up?
I--just pick that stump up, will you?"

They went to the misshapen, ragged monster and lifted it, puffing under
the weight.
"All right."
They dropped it obediently.
"And he--he just swung it around his head like it was nothing!"
declared the girl. "Look how it smashed into the gravel where he threw
it down! Why--why--I didn't know men was made like that. And his
face--the way he laughed--why he didn't look like no fool at all, boys.
But just as if he'd waked up!"
"You act so interested," said Harry Campbell dryly, "that maybe you'd
like to have us call him out again so's you can talk to him?"
Apparently she did not hear, but stared down into the mist of the late
afternoon, warning her that she must start home. She seemed puzzled
and a little frightened. When she left them it was with a wave of the
hand and with no words of farewell. They watched her go down the
trail that jerked back and forth across the pitch of the slope; twice her
pony stumbled, a sure sign that the rider was absent-minded.
"Jessie didn't seem to know what to make of it," said Harry.
"Neither do I," returned his brother.
Both of them spoke in subdued voices as if they were afraid of being
overheard.
"And think if he'd ever lay a hold on one of us like that!" said Harry.
He went to the stump and examined the side of one of the roots. It was
stained with crimson.
"Look where his finger tips worked through the dirt and the bark, right
down to the solid wood," murmured Joe.
They looked at each other uneasily. "My gosh," said Joe, "think of the
way I handled him the other night! He--he let me trip him up and throw

him!" He shuddered. "Why, if he'd laid hold of me just once, he'd of
squashed my muscles like they was rotten fruit!"
Of one accord they turned back to the house. At the door they paused
and peered in, as into the den of a bear. There sat Bull on the floor--he
risked his weight to none of the crazy chairs--still looking at his stained
hands. Then they drew back and again looked at each other with scared
eyes and spoke in undertones.
"After this maybe he won't want to follow orders. Maybe he'll get sort
of free and easy and independent."
"If he does, you watch Dad give him his marching orders. Dad won't
have no one lifting heads agin' him."
"Neither will I," snapped Joe. "I guess we own this house. I guess we
support that big hulk. I'm going to try him right quick."
He went back to the door of the shack. "Bull, they ain't any wood for
the stove tonight. Go chop some quick."
The floor squeaked and groaned under Bull's weight as he rose, and
again the brothers looked to each other.
"All right," came cheerily from Bull Hunter.
He came through the door with his ax and went to the log pile. The
brothers watched him throw aside the top logs and get at the heavier
trunks underneath. He tore one of these out, laid it in place, and the sun