mined.

Frederick asked Oliver tremblingly:

"What do you think of this thing?"

"It looks black to me."

"It looks hellish to me."

"I'm not going."

"Nor am I."

They promptly reported the decision to their father.

His eyes flamed.

"It's too late to retreat now!"

"We're not going," was the sullen answer in chorus.

The father gripped the two with his hard hands and held them as in a
vise.

"You will not put me to shame now before these men. You will go with
me--do you hear?"

His tones rang with the quiver of steel and the boys' wills weakened.

Frederick said finally:

"We'll go with you then, but we'll take no part in what you do."

"Agreed," was the stern answer.

He turned to Oliver and said:

"Give me your revolver. I may need it."

"It's mine," the boy replied. "I'll not give it up."

The old man looked the stalwart figure over in a quick glance of
appraisement. Brown had been a man of iron strength in his day but
his shoulders were stooped and he knew he was no match for the fierce
strength of youth. Yet his hesitation was only for an instant.

With the sudden spring of a panther he leaped on the boy and attempted
to take the pistol by force. The son resisted with fury.

Frederick, alarmed lest the pistol should be discharged in the struggle,
managed to slip it from his brother's belt.

The match was not equal.

Youth was master in the appeal to brute strength. At North Elba the
father had once thrown thirty lumbermen in a day, one after the other,
in a wrestling match. He summoned the last ounce of strength now to
subdue his rebellious son.

Frederick watched the contest with painful anxiety. His own mind was not
strong. He had already given evidences of insanity that had distressed
his brother. If Oliver should kill his father or the old man should kill
the brother! He couldn't face the hideous possibility. Yet he couldn't
stop them.

Fortunately there were no other witnesses to the fight. Townsley was
busy at the stable with the team. Weiner and Thompson had gone into the
house to complete their packing of provisions for the journey.

In tones of blind anguish Frederick followed the two desperate
struggling men.

"Don't do this, Father!"

The old man made no answer save to swing his agile son's frame to one
side in another futile effort to throw him to the ground.

Not a word escaped his lips. His eyes flashed and glittered with the
uncertain glare of a maniac in