"What are you going to do with that?" demanded he.

"That will depend upon circumstances."

"Drop that poker!"

"For the present I shall regard this poker as a part of myself; and I hope you will so regard it."

"You impudent puppy!"

"Foul words are cheap, defiling only him who utters them," I added, quoting a sentence from the instructions of Mr. Gracewood.

"I'm not to be trifled with, Phil," said Lynch, taking a small Derringer pistol from his pocket.

"That's just my case," I answered, elevating the poker.

"Look here, Lynch," interrupted Morgan Blair, rising from his chair in evident alarm, "if you are going to use pistols and such things, I won't have anything to do with the scrape."

"Shut up, Blair!" replied Lynch.