for I am
not the guilty one?"

"Does this prove anything?" and the young farmer held up the gold head
of a walking-stick.

Schuyler Cluett again started forward, as though to grasp it; but the
pistol's muzzle once more confronted him, while Kent Lomax fairly hissed
forth the words:

"This I found in the buggy, and there is the stick--see, it fits!" and
stepping to a corner, he picked up a headless walking-stick of
snake-root.

"You will not deny your guilt now, for this gold head bears your name,
and it came off in the buggy, and you doubtless thought you had dropped
it along the road."

"I say that I am _not_ guilty," was the sullen reply.

"Well, sir, I say that you are, and I came here to kill you; but I will
not be a coward and shoot down anunarmed man. Yet I will not allow you
to escape, for I intend to right the wrong I believe you have done poor
Ruby, and I have vowed, over the dead body of Mrs. Raymond, to avenge
her death."

"What is your intention, Lomax, for this scene is growing monotonous to
me?"

"My intention is to demand that you meet me face to face, arms in our
hands, and as one gentleman should meet another, though I do not
consider you worthy the name you have dishonoured."

"By the Lord Harry! but this is too much, and I will meet you were you
the lowest of the low; so name your friend, and Mr. Rayford here will
arrange with him!" hotly said Schuyler Cluett.

"_I_ have no friend, but that gentleman will do, and he is all we need.

"I will