me_ chance for my life. If I have wronged you, and I
candidly confess that I have, I am ready to give you the satisfaction of
a gentleman. Give me a pistol, place me upon an equal footing with
yourself, and we will settle the matter as becomes men of honor. This
boy, here, will be a witness of the affair."

To this proposition, Romaine scornfully replied,

"I admire your assurance, sir.--After seducing the wife, you want a
chance to shoot the husband. Well, as I am an accommodating man, it
shall be as you say, for I am sick of life and care not if I am killed.
But I have no other pistol. Stay!--suppose we _toss up_ a coin, and thus
decide which of us shall have this weapon, with the privilege of using
it. Here is a quarter of a dollar; I will throw it up in the air, and
when it falls upon the floor, if the _head_ is uppermost, the pistol is
_mine_; but if the _tail_ is uppermost, the pistol shall be _yours_. I
warn you that if I win, I shall show you no mercy; and, if you win, I
shall expect none from you. Do you agree to this?"

"I do," replied Anderson, firmly, "and I thank you for your fairness."

Romaine threw up the coin, which spun around in the air and landed upon
the carpet. How strange that it should have become the province of that
insignificant coin to decide which of those two men must die!

Romaine calmly took the dim lamp from the table, and knelt down upon the
carpet in a pool of his wife's blood.

"Watch me closely, and see that I do not touch the coin," said he, as he
bent eagerly over the life-deciding quarter of a dollar.

How my heart beat at that moment, and what must have been the sensation
of poor Anderson!

"_The head is uppermost, and I have won!_" said Romaine, in a hoarse
whisper--"come and see for yourself."

"I am satisfied, your word is sufficient," said Anderson, with a
shudder, as he folded his arms across his breast and seemed to abandon
himself to profound despair.

Romaine's pale face assumed an expression of savage delight, as he
raised the pistol and pointed it at the head of his intended victim,
saying--

"Then, sir, nothing remains but for me to avail myself of the favor
which fortune has conferred upon me. Young man, in five seconds I shall
fire!"

"Hold!" cried Anderson, "I have a favor to ask, which I am sure you will
not refuse to grant me. Before I die, let me write a couple of letters,
and make a few notes of the manner in which I wish my property to be
dispose