r owing a
debt to me, it is yourself you have to thank for the trouble you have
got into; it was no doing of mine. However, I warn you that you had
better abstain from insulting me again. I did not strike you back when
you hit me last time, but if you call me scoundrel again you shall see
that I can hit as hard as you can, and I will teach you to keep a civil
tongue in your head."

"You mark my words," Mr. Faulkner repeated. "I will have you watched,
and I will hunt you down, and if I am not mistaken I will put a rope
round your neck one of these days." So saying, he struck spurs into his
horse and galloped on.

Julian stood looking after him until he saw him turn in at his gate. The
drive to the house led, as he knew, diagonally through the wood, and as
he walked forward he heard the horse's galloping hoofs grow louder and
louder. Suddenly there was the report of a gun some seventy or eighty
yards away. It was mingled with that of a sudden cry, and Julian heard
the horse galloping on even faster than before. With an exclamation of
"Good heavens! something has happened!" he broke through the hedge and
ran in the direction of the sound. As he approached it he thought that
he caught sight of a man running through the trees, but he kept straight
on until he came upon the drive. Twenty yards away Mr. Faulkner lay
stretched on the ground. He went up to him, and stooped over him. His
eyes were closed, and as he lay on his back Julian saw blood oozing
through a bullet-hole in his coat high up on the left side of the chest.

Feeling sure that Mr. Faulkner was dead he started up, and without a
moment's hesitation ran into the wood again, in the direction where he
had thought that he had seen a figure. A minute later he came upon some
footprints on a bare spot between the trees, where the snow had fallen
lightly. Noting the direction they took, he followed at once. He saw no
more signs of footprints, but followed the direction as nearly as he
could until he came to the farthest side of the wood; then he leaped out
into the field beyond, and followed the edge of the wood until he again
reached the road. He then turned and went back again, and fifty yards
from the point where he had first run out he came upon the footprints
again.

"He was going to take to the hills, he muttered," as he set off along
the track. He ran at a trot, and as he went, loaded both barrels of his
gun. "Very likely the villain will show fight," he said t