eeved young man flung
his hand toward him with an indignant gesture, talking hard the
while. It did not need a preternaturally keen observer to deduce what
had happened. Beale must have fallen out with the young man who was
sitting on the grass and smitten him, and now his friend had taken up
the quarrel.

"Now this," I said to myself, "is rather interesting. Here in this one
farm we have the only three known methods of dealing with duns. Beale
is evidently an exponent of the violent method. Ukridge is an apostle
of evasion. I shall try conciliation. I wonder which of us will be the
most successful."

Meanwhile, not to spoil Beale's efforts by allowing him too little
scope for experiment, I refrained from making my presence known, and
continued to stand by the gate, an interested spectator.

Things were evidently moving now. The young man's gestures became
more vigorous. The dogged look on Beale's face deepened. The comments
of the ring increased in point and pungency.

"What did you hit him for, then?"

This question was put, always in the same words and with the same air
of quiet triumph, at intervals of thirty seconds by a little man in a
snuff-colored suit with a purple tie. Nobody ever answered him or
appeared to listen to him, but he seemed each time to think that he
had clinched the matter and cornered his opponent.

Other voices chimed in.

"You hit him, Charlie. Go on. You hit him."

"We'll have the law."

"Go on, Charlie."

Flushed with the favor of the many-headed, Charlie now proceeded from
threats to action. His right fist swung round suddenly. But Beale was
on the alert. He ducked sharply, and the next minute Charlie was
sitting on the ground beside his fallen friend. A hush fell on the
ring, and the little man in the purple tie was left repeating his
formula without support.

I advanced. It seemed to me that the time had come to be conciliatory.
Charlie was struggling to his feet, obviously anxious for a second
round, and Beale was getting into position once more. In another five
minutes conciliation would be out of the question.

"What's all this?" I said.

My advent caused a stir. Excited men left Beale and rallied round me.
Charlie, rising to his feet, found himself dethroned from his position
of man of the moment, and stood blinking at the setting sun and
opening and shutting his mouth. There was a buzz of conversation.

"Don't all speak at once, please," I said. "I can't possibly f