en entirely sober, he would have been
killed by his belligerent foe. As it was, he defended himself with a
bottle from the counter of the saloon, which he smashed on the head of
his furious assailant.

The blow with the bottle, which was a long and heavy one, felled Mike to
the floor. He dropped senseless with the blood oozing from his head
upon the sanded boards. Joel was appalled at what he had done; but he
was sobered as well, and when some of the wounded man's friends attacked
him in revenge, he fled from the saloon. But he went for the doctor, and
sent him to Mike's aid. He was terribly alarmed as he considered the
probable consequences of his rash deed. He dared not go home, lest the
constable should be there to arrest him. Later in the evening he crept
cautiously to the doctor's office, to ascertain the condition of his
victim. The physician had caused Mike to be conveyed to his
boarding-place, and had done all he could for him. In reply to Joel's
anxious inquiries, he shook his head, and feared the patient would die.
He could not speak with confidence till the next day, but the worst was
to be anticipated. Joel was stunned by this intelligence. A charge for
murder or manslaughter would be preferred against him, and the penalty
for either was fearful to contemplate. He dared not go home to comfort
his wife--if there could be any comfort under such circumstances.

Stealing down to the river in the gloom of the night, he embarked in a
dory he owned, and before morning pulled twelve miles to a city on the
other side of the bay, from which he made his way to Gloucester, where
he obtained a lay in a fishing-vessel bound to the Georges. When he was
ready to sail, he wrote a long letter to his wife, explaining his
situation. She had money enough to supply the needs of the family for a
time for the purse had always been in her keeping. He asked her to write
him in regard to the fate of Mike Manahan, and to inform him of what
people said about the quarrel, so that he could get her letters on his
return from the Georges, if there should be no opportunity of forwarding
them to him.

Mrs. Wormbury was very much distressed at this unfortunate event; but it
appeared in a few days that Mike was not fatally injured; and in a week
he returned to his work. Mike was a good-hearted fellow, and as soon as
he was able he called upon the wife of his late opponent, declaring that
it was a fair fight, and that no harm should come to he