ght his wrist, twisting it so that the open claspknife
shot out of his hand. The relief I felt at this must have renewed my
strength. In another instant I had rolled him over upon his face and
knelt upon him so that he could not move. There was a piece of codline
in my pocket and I had his wrists knotted behind him in short order--nor
was I particular whether I hurt him, or not! Then I stood up and rolled
him over with my foot.

"There!" I panted; "if ever a fellow deserved jailing, you're that
fellow, Paul Downes."

"I'll fix you for this! I'll fix you for this!" he kept blubbering.

I was bruised and lame myself (especially where Paul had kicked me in
the leg) and now I discovered that my right coatsleeve was slit from the
shoulder to the wrist. I had just escaped suffering a dangerous wound.

"Aren't you a pretty fellow?" I said, showing him this rent.

"I wish I'd got you!" he snarled so viciously that I was really
startled.

"You won't feel that way when you cool down," I said.

"I won't cool down. I'll get square with you for this if I wait ten
years," he declared.

"You're for all the world like your father," I said, hotly; "and he's as
revengeful a person as I ever saw."

"Is that so?" retorted Paul. "Well, he isn't like your father was--_he_
had to commit suicide to get out of trouble----"

"What do you mean?" I cried, amazed.

But Paul bit his lip and fell silent. He nevertheless looked at me with
so threatening a scowl that, had he not been tied hard and fast, I
should have been on the lookout for another cowardly attack.

"What nonsense is that you said?" I repeated. "What do you know about my
father?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" returned my cousin, sullenly.

I recovered myself then, believing he was only trying to fret me. "You
needn't talk nonsense," I said. "If you mean to say that my father made
way with himself, why you're simply silly! Everybody knows that he was
drowned while fishing, over there off White Rock."

"So everybody knows it, hey?" he responded, with a most exasperating air
of knowing something that _I_ didn't know. "All right. I'm glad that
folks know so much. But let me tell you, Clint Webb, that you and your
ma'd be paupers now if he hadn't got drowned as he did. It was the only
thing he could do."

"You'd better drop it," I advised him, scornfully. "You'd much better be
thinking of what will happen to you because of this evening's work. You
can't bother me by any