ling, "haven't you got enough. Be thankful you're
not killed. Go on! Get home! I don't run a butcher shop!"

"Will you say you're a liar and a cowardly liar?"

Barney's voice had in it the ring of cold steel.

"I say, boys," said Bulling, appealing to the crowd, "keep this fool
off. I don't want to kill him."

Foxmore, with some of the others, approached Barney.

"Now, Boyle, quit it," said Foxmore. "There's no use, you see." He laid
his hand on Barney's arm.

Barney put his hand against his breast, appearing to brush him aside,
but Foxmore touched nothing till he struck the wall ten feet away.

"Get back!" cried Barney, springing away from the men approaching him.
As he spoke, he seized a small oak dressing table by one of its legs,
swung it round his head, dashed it to pieces on the marble floor, and,
putting his foot upon the wreckage, with one mighty wrench had the leg
free in his hand.

"You men stand back," he said in a low voice, "and don't any of you
interfere."

Amazed at this exhibition of furious strength, the men started back to
their places, leaving a wide space about him.

"Good heavens!" said Bulling, his face turning a shade pale, "the man is
mad! Call a policeman, some of you."

"Drake, lock that door and bring me the key," said Barney.

As Barney put the key in his pocket and turned again toward Bulling,
the latter's pallor increased. "I take you men to witness," he said,
appealing to the company, "if murder is done I'm not responsible. I'm
defending my life. Remember, I'll strike to kill."

"No, Dr. Bulling," said Barney, handing his club to Drake, "you won't
strike at all. I've had my lesson. You'll strike me no more. The boxing
exhibition is over. This is a fight till you can fight no more."

The doctor's nerve was fast going. Barney stood cool, quiet, and
terrible.

"I'll give you your chance once again," he said. "Will you say you are a
cowardly liar?"

Dr. Bulling glanced at the group back of him, read pain in their faces,
hesitated a moment, then, pulling himself together, said, with an
evident effort at bluster, "Not by a ---- sight! Come on! Take your
medicine!" But the lesson of the last half hour had not been lost on
Barney. Up and down the long room, circling about his man, feinting to
draw his attack, eluding, and again feinting, Barney kept his antagonist
in such rapid motion and so intensely on the alert that his wind began
to fail him, and it soon became evident that