ow can you account for that?"

"Yes, that's what I want to know," Stubbles questioned. "Did you not
stir up Jake Jukes and others to set upon my son and treat him in a
most shameful manner?"

"I knew nothing at all about it," Douglas explained, "until my arrival
from the city last night."

"You lie!" and Stubbles stamped furiously upon the floor. "Do you
expect me or any one else to believe such a thing as that?"

"Ask Jake and the rest of the men. They know that I had nothing to do
with the affair."

"I wouldn't believe what they said if they swore to it on all the
Bibles in the world. They are nothing but a pack of curs, and I'll fix
them, see if I don't."

"You will do nothing of the kind, Mr. Stubbles," the lawyer quietly
remarked. "If you do, not a cent of money do you get from me."

"Keep your money, then," Stubbles retorted. "I'm not going to be
brow-beaten by you or any one else, and especially by a farm-hand. I
shall get along somehow, but I will have satisfaction for the injury
that was committed last night. Ben is my son, and I am going to stand
by him no matter what happens."

"Steady, Mr. Stubbles, steady," the lawyer advised. "You must not talk
that way. You are not out of deep water yet."

"I will stay in, then, and you can all go to blazes. You want me to
back down and say I have been in the fault. But you've got the wrong
bull by the horns this time."

"Am I to understand, then, that you will not need the ten thousand
dollars from me?" Garton asked.

"No, not under your conditions. You want me to apologise to him," and
he nodded toward Douglas. "If I do, you'll let me have the money. Is
that it?"

"Mr.--er--Handyman, can speak for himself," Garton replied.

"I am not thinking so much of myself, Mr. Stubbles," Douglas told him,
"as of the parish in general. If you agree not to act like a tyrant in
the future and not to meddle in Church matters, and stop persecuting
every clergyman who comes here unless he bows to your slightest wish,
then I am satisfied."

"Do you think I am a fool?" Stubbles flung back. "What impudence!
Why, I never heard the like of it before! And I won't allow it! You
can go, both of you. I'll attend to my own affairs, sink or swim."

Stubbles rose to his feet, signifying that the discussion was at an end.

"So you don't want the money, then?" Garton asked.

"No, and that's the end of it."

"Very well," and the lawyer rubbed his chin in a tho