"Do you deny it?"
"I do. Upon my honour, yes!"
"You deny that you ran off with Ruby Raymond from her father's house, at twelve o'clock on the night of Christmas Eve?"
"I do."
"You lie in your false throat, man!" shouted the farmer, and at his words Schuyler Cluett sprang toward him; but quick as a flash, a pistol met him, the muzzle in his face, while the young farmer said sternly:
"Back! I did not come here unprepared, and I would kill you, oh! how gladly!"
"I tell you I am falsely accused; and being unarmed, and knowing your great strength, I am forced to hear you accuse me and submit to your insults, Kent Lomax."
"Schuyler Cluett, I know that you are guilty, for I tracked you in your villainy."
"Yet you find me here in my bachelor rooms, and there is a friend who is with me, and can vouch for my words."
"I can, indeed, sir, for I know that my friend Cluett has been but two days absent from the city the week past," and Randal Rayford stepped out of his room into the parlour, he having hastily dressed as he saw that a tragedy was threatening.