Mr. Fletcher, as you or your informant knows, I was
the surveyor who revealed to Mr. Harcourt the value of the land to which
he claimed a title from your man, this Elijah or 'Lige Curtis as you
call him,"--he could not resist this imitation of his adversary's
supercilious affectation of precise nomenclature,--"and it was upon
my representation of its value as an investment that he began the
improvements which have made him wealthy. If this title was fraudulently
obtained, all the facts pertaining to it are sufficiently related to
connect me with the conspiracy."

"Are you not a little hasty in your presumption, Mr. Grant?" said
Fletcher, with unfeigned surprise.

"That is for ME to judge, Mr. Fletcher," returned Grant, haughtily.

"But the name of Professor Grant is known to all California as beyond
the breath of calumny or suspicion."

"It is because of that fact that I propose to keep it so."

"And may I ask in what way you wish me to assist you in so doing?"

"By promptly and publicly retracting in the 'Clarion' every word of this
slander against Harcourt."

Fletcher looked steadfastly at the speaker. "And if I decline?"

"I think you have been long enough in California, Mr. Fletcher, to know
the alternative expected of a gentleman," said Grant, coldly.

Mr. Fletcher kept his gentle blue eyes--in which surprise still
overbalanced their expression of pained concern--on Grant's face.

"But is not this more in the style of Colonel Starbottle than Professor
Grant?" he asked, with a faint smile.

Grant rose instantly with a white face. "You will have a better
opportunity of judging," he said, "when Colonel Starbottle has the honor
of waiting upon you from me. Meantime, I thank you for reminding me of
the indiscretion into which my folly, in still believing that this thing
could be settled amicably, has led me."

He bowed coldly and withdrew. Nevertheless, as he mounted his horse
and rode away, he felt his cheeks burning. Yet he had acted upon calm
consideration; he knew that to the ordinary Californian experience there
was nothing quixotic nor exaggerated in the attitude he had taken. Men
had quarreled and fought on less grounds; he had even half convinced
himself that he HAD been insulted, and that his own professional
reputation demanded the withdrawal of the attack on Harcourt on
purely business grounds; but he was not satisfied of the personal
responsibility of Fletcher nor of his gratuitous malignity. No