m,
and once more asked him to fight it out. He saw that I was in earnest,
and that he was simply compelled to battle for his life. Under these
circumstances of course he fought, as the worst coward must do, when
driven to desperation. He decided to use pistols, though I wished to try
our cause with knives. I confess that I wanted the satisfaction of
stabbing him again and again. I wanted to see his life's blood flow at
each stroke. It seemed to me tame to stand off at a distance and send
one little leaden ball in his direction. Still I admitted his right of
choice, and determined to aim as accurately as possible and to send my
bullet straight. You see I did not think of my own life. I had made this
vengeance my one object, and after accomplishing that, I thought there
would be nothing more for me to do. Consequently I expected to kill him
easily, and I did not care if his bullet found my heart or not. Perhaps
I hoped it would. Just as we were standing up and preparing to fight,
something occurred that almost completely unnerved me and changed the
whole result. He lowered his pistol and said:

"'Wait a moment; I have a favor to ask. I feel certain that you will
kill me. You have been seeking my life so long, that I am sure you will
get it. It is fate. But I too have suffered in the last five years. The
favor that I ask is, that if I die you will promise to get my child out
of that fiend's clutches.'

"'Your child,' I gasped. 'I thought it died.'

"'That was the Montalbon's lie. The little girl lived, and she took it.
I have made a will in favor of my child, leaving her all my wealth; you
will find it in my coat. Oddly enough, I named you as executor. I knew
that you had loved the mother, though, as God is my judge, I did not
know it when I married her. But I am ready if you are.'

"Thus we stood up and fired at each other. The startling news just
received made my aim bad, for instead of hitting him in the heart, as I
could easily have done, my bullet struck him in the head. He fell, and I
rushed towards him, to discover whether he was badly hurt. He was
bleeding profusely, and I hastily bandaged up the wound, and so stopped
the flow of blood. I then went on to the next mining camp beyond. We
returned with a litter, and took him back. There was a man amongst us
who claimed that he had studied medicine, and he attended my cousin. He
removed the bullet, and found that the wound was not very deep, but the
skull was fract