The Feud Read Online Free PDF Page A

him with little angry eyes. “Sure, cuz he flicked off the burning part on the floor.”
    Bud’s doubts returned. “If he did that, we would of seen him, wouldn’t we? And then what happened, it took all day for the fire to start?”
    “That’s the way them things go,” said Reverton. “Why, down in the coal country they got mines that been burning real quiet since the Year One. All of a sudden smoke and fire shoots out of the cracks in the ground, and boils the water in the ponds, and the ladies do their wash there.”
    “Is that right?” said Walt.
    Reverton said, “That’s how it works sometimes.”
    “I still say it would be hard to prove,” said Bud.
    “Why,” said Reverton, “me and you and Junior’ll say we saw him do it.”
    Bud didn’t much like that approach. He wasn’t a saint, but to tell a downright lie about another man in a serious situation like this was not to his taste. Fortunately he was not forced to reject his cousin’s idea: Walt Huff came up with the conclusive reason why it wouldn’t work.
    “If all of you saw him drop the hot ash off his cigar onto the wood floor,” asked Walt, “why didn’t none of you put it out?”
    Reverton turned away for a moment with a face made dark by exasperation. When he turned back he asked Huff, “You gonna fight every idea that we cook up to look out for our family?”
    Walt said, “You can figure my argument’s gonna be a lot easier to handle than what the other side comes up with. If Dolf Beeler gets him a lawyer he’ll make mincemeat of you unless you got some real proof.”
    Reverton stared hatefully at him for an instant and then he dropped his head. “Them dirty rotten shitass lawyers!”
    Bud was relieved to see that Rev was conquered by reason. He himself knew very well that Beeler’s dead cigar had had nothing to do with the fire. Besides, Beeler certainly hadn’t looked like a man who would be rich enough to refund the damages if he had been guilty. That’s all that would have meant anything to Bud. A Beeler imprisoned for arson would not bring back his store.
    But Reverton had merely been diverted into another channel. “That makes it easier if we don’t have to mess with the law. We’ll just get even in our own way.”
    This had a chilling sound to Bud, who was a merchant, not a fighting man. “Maybe we ought to think about it first, Rev. I don’t know what good any revenge would do, even if the fire was caused by some particular person.” He was beginning to feel the physical effects of adversity and wondered whether he could make the half-mile walk home.
    “You think too long about anything, and you won’t do it,” said Reverton. “We got our pride at stake here. They get away with that, and the next thing you know they’ll be riding us down like dogs and violating our women and all.”
    Walt raised his eyebrows. “You put it pretty strong, Reverton. I’ve worked not with but pretty near to Beeler for some years, and I seen his wife come to the plant oncet to bring his lunch that he forgot, and then his boy had a summer job down there, heavy labor. He’s a good football player. Hornbeck whipped us last Thanksgiving if you recall—”
    “You’re running off at the mouth,” said Reverton. “And you oughta get yourself some other hat. That one’s too big for you.”
    Walt was a good-natured soul. He just smirked and said, “I’m just saying you’re exaggerating, is all. And all these helmets is the same size. They got a webbing inside that your head fits in. This one should be tighter, is all.” He asked Bud, “You didn’t ever put a penny in the slot when a fuse blew, didja?”
    Reverton had walked away in annoyance. Bud nodded at his cousin’s back and said to his brother-in-law, “Rev eats with us most every Sunday. I sure wish we could get you and Bess to come up, but she and Frieda are still on the outs, I guess.”
    Walt shook his head inside the helmet, which did not turn. “ Women! “ said