"Yes. It is perfectly apparent to me that M. T. Pate is destined to become a very distinguished personage. Somebody will write his biography, and why not I? One chapter has been completed, which, with your permission, I will read."
At that moment there was a knock at the door, and Captain Bragg entered the room.
CHAPTER V.
"It has been said that the worst use you can make of a man is to hang him. I think, Captain Bragg, that the next worst is to shoot him."
This remark was made by Toney after Bragg, having first shown him the challenge which he had received from Botts and requested him to act as his second, had emphatically expressed a truculent determination to put the challenger to death with powder and ball.
"And," said Seddon, "some men are not worth the ammunition expended on them."
"By the powers of mud! what do you mean, Mr. Seddon?" exclaimed Bragg. "Is not Mr. Botts a gentleman? Do I not find him in the very best society?"
"Not certainly in the very best society when he is found quarreling with a monkey," said Seddon.