"It is a useful habit under particular circumstances."
"A truth I do not deny; but not in this case. Come in; sit down, and let us talk."
"I comply," answered the hunter, taking a few steps forward, "particularly as I have to demand an explanation from you."
The Tigercat frowned, and replied, with rising and ill-suppressed anger:
"Is it to me you speak thus? Have you forgotten who I am?"
"I forget nothing that I ought to remember," concisely replied the other.
"Boy! Have you forgotten that I am your father?"
"My father! Who will prove it?"
"You are over-venturesome," cried the old man in ire.
"After all," said the hunter scornfully, "it is nothing to me whether you be my father or not. What does it matter? Have you not told me a thousand times over, that bonds of relationship do not exist in nature; that they are only a factitious sentiment, invented by human egotism for the profit of the petty exigencies of debased society? Here, we are only two men, equals in strength and courage; of whom the one comes to demand from the other a clear and unvarnished explanation."