the mule she come out
to the stable with them bits o' crocus sack fo' mah feet, 'n she said
Mr. Baron'd jus' gone, 'n she 'lowed he had a fever comin' on, he
looked so bad."

Dr. Morgan was reading the letter for the second time, frowning heavily
over it.

"What do you-all think yo'self?"

"Well, Ah don' see how he can be right to walk a mile to our house in
this weather, not needin' to, 'n to _in_-sist on mah comin' here. Is
they e'er an answer?"

The older man rose and put a log on the fire, while Bud gathered
together his primitive panoply and began to arm himself against the
elements.

"You tell him, Bud, that Ah'll attend to it when the mud dries after
this rain. Ah get enough hauling round to do in the mud, without
anything extra," he added.

Bud's curiosity was suffering.

"Ain' you-all goin' to see him?"

"You tell him what Ah say." The Doctor picked up his book with an air
of dismissal. "Shut the do' tight," he called, and then read the same
page three times over with unthinking mind, until he heard Bob's step
coming down the stairs.

"Bob."

"Sir?"

The young man looked out of the window, wondering how soon the rain
would stop enough for him to go to see Sydney.

"Read this."

Bob took the letter.

"The Baron," he said, studying the small, foreign hand.

"Read it aloud."

Bob began obediently:

"MY DEAR SIR,--It is now more than three weeks that you played upon
me a trick most treacherous. What it was I will not relate, for it
would be needless. This I do assert, and more, that when you tell
me you do not know what I mean, as you told me yesterday, you say
not the truth. When I demand that you give to me the satisfaction
that a gentleman should offer to another under such circumstances,
I feel that I am treating you with a courtesy which you do not
deserve. I think a whipping would suit better your contemptibility.
Still, nevertheless, I conceal my pride, and I beg that you will
meet me at whatever place you may appoint, and that you will fight
with me with any weapon that you may choose.

"My unfriended condition in this country makes it not possible that
I should be accompanied by a person who shall be suitable to be my
second. But I entreat that my poverty in this respect will not
deter you from bringing a friend with you.

"I am, sir,

"Yours with faithfulness,

"FRIEDRICH JOHANN LUDWIG V. RITTENHEIM."