tleman' shun your very contact!"

"This punctilious reverence for honor does infinite credit to your
buccaneer education," said Linton, whose eyes sparkled with malignant
delight at the angry passion he had succeeded in evoking. "The
friendship of escaped felons must have a wondrous influence upon
refinement."

"Enough, sir!" said Cashel. "How came you into the room, since the key
of it is in my pocket?"

"Were I to inform you," said Linton, "you would acknowledge it was by
a much more legitimate mode than that by which you effected your
entrance."

"You shall decide which is the pleasanter then!" cried Cashel, as he
tore open the window, and advanced in a menacing manner towards the
other.

"Take care, Cashel," said Linton, in a low, deliberate voice; "I am
armed!"

And while he spoke, he placed one hand within the breast of his coat,
and held it there. Quick as was the motion, it was not sudden enough to
escape the flashing eye of Roland, who sprang upon him, and seized his
wrist with a grasp that nearly jammed the bones together.

"Provoke me a little further," cried he, "and, by Heaven! I 'll not give
you the choice or chance of safety, but hurl you from that window as I
would the meanest housebreaker."

"Let me free,--let me loose, sir," said Linton, in a low weak voice,
which passion, not fear, had reduced to a mere whisper. "You shall have
the satisfaction you aim at, when and how you please."

"By daylight to-morrow, at the boat-quay beside the lake."

"Agreed. There is no need of witnesses,--we understand each other."

"Be it so. Be true to your word, and none shall hear from _me_ the
reasons of our meeting, nor what has occurred here this night."

"I care not if all the world knew it," said Linton, insolently; "I came
in quest of a lost document,--one which I had my reasons to suspect had
fallen into your possession."

"And of whose forgery I have the proofs," said Cashel, as opening the
deed, he held it up before Linton's eyes. "Do you see that?"

"And do you know, Cashel," cried Linton, assuming a voice of slow and
most deliberate utterance, "that your own title to this property is as
valueless and as worthless as that document you hold there? Do you know
that there is in existence a paper which, produced in an open court
of justice, would reduce you to beggary, and stamp you, besides, as an
impostor? It may be that you are well aware of that fact; and that the
same means by which you have