he doesn't know----"

"Then, damn you!" shrieked Harvey, shaking his fist in the big man's
face, "what do you mean by coming here like this? What do you think I
am? Get out of here! I'm a joke, am I? Well, I'll show you and her and
everybody else that I'm a hell of a joke, let me tell you that! I was
good enough for her once. I won her away from every fellow in
Blakeville. I can do it again. I'll show you, you big bluffer! Now,
get out! Don't you ever come here again, and--don't you ever go near
my wife again!"

Fairfax had arisen. He was smiling, despite his astonishment.

"I fancy you will find you can't go so far as that," he sneered.

"Get out, or I'll throw you out!"

"Better think it over. Twenty-five thousand and no questions asked.
Take a day or two to think----"

With a shriek of rage Harvey threw himself at the big man, striking
out with all his might. Taken by surprise, Fairfax fell away before
the attack, which, though seemingly impotent, was as fierce as that of
a wildcat.

The New Yorker was in no danger. He warded off the blows with ease,
all the time imploring the infuriated Harvey to be sensible, to be
calm. But with a heroism born of shame and despair the little man
swung his arms like windmills, clawing, scratching, until the air
seemed full of them. Fairfax's huge head was out of reach. In his
blind fury Harvey did not take that into account. He struck at it with
all the power in his thin little arms, always falling so far short
that the efforts were ludicrous.

Fairfax began to look about in alarm. The noise of the conflict was
sure to attract the attention of the servants. He began backing toward
the doorway. Suddenly Harvey changed his fruitless tactics. He drove
the toe of his shoe squarely against the shinbone of the big man. With
a roar of rage Fairfax hurled himself upon the panting foe.

"I'll smash your head, you little devil," he roared, and struck out
viciously with one of his huge fists.

The blow landed squarely on Harvey's eye. He fell in a heap several
feet away. Half-dazed, he tried to get to his feet. The big man, all
the brute in him aroused, sprang forward and drove another savage blow
into the bleak, white face of the little one. Again he struck. Then he
lifted Harvey bodily from the floor and held him up against the wall,
his big hand on his throat.

"How do you like it?" he snarled, slapping the helpless,
half-conscious man in the face with his open hand--loud, sti