a cold deadliness of hatred and said:

"You are lucky."

Outwardly Cleggett remained calm, but inwardly he was shaken with an
intensity of passion that matched Loge's own.

"Lucky?" he said quietly. "That is as may be. And if, as I infer, you
desire a settlement of a more personal nature than the law recognizes,
it is still not too late to accommodate you."

"Desire!" cried Loge, with a movement of his manacled hands. "I would
go to Hell happy if I sent you ahead of me!"

"Very well," said Cleggett. "Since you have challenged me I will fight
you. I will do you that honor."

Loge was about to answer when Wilton Barnstable broke in:

"Mr. Cleggett," he said, "I scarcely understand you. Are you
consenting to fight this man?"

"Certainly," said Cleggett. "He has challenged me."

"A duel?" said Wilton Barnstable in astonishment.

"A duel."

"But that is impossible. His life is forfeit to the law. I hope,
before the year is out, to send him to the electric chair. Under the
circumstances, a duel is an absurdity."

"An absurdity?" Cleggett, with his hands on his hips, and a little
dancing light in his eyes, faced the great detective squarely. "You
permit yourself very peculiar expressions, Mr. Barnstable!"

"I beg your pardon," said Wilton Barnstable. "I withdraw 'absurdity.'
But you must see yourself, Mr. Cleggett, that a duel is useless, if
nothing else. The man is our prisoner. He belongs to the law."

Loge had struggled to a sitting posture, his back against the port
bulwark, and was listening with an odd look on his face.

"The law?" said Cleggett. "I suppose, in one sense, that is true. But
the matter has its personal element as well."

"I must insist," said Wilton Barnstable, "that Logan Black is my
prisoner."

Cleggett was silent a moment. Then he said firmly: "Mr. Barnstable,
it is painful to me to have to remind you of it, but your attitude
forces me to an equal directness. The fact that Logan Black is now a
captive is due to his efforts to recover certain evidence which may be
used against him. This evidence I discovered and defended, and this
evidence I now hold in my possession."

Wilton Barnstable was about to retort, perhaps heatedly, but Cleggett,
generous even while determined to have his own way, hastened to add:
"Do not think, Mr. Barnstable, that I minimize your work, or your
assistance--but, after all, what am I demanding that is unreasonable?
If Logan Black dies by