“Then is the luck mine, for I know you right well, young sir!”
“And for whom do you know me?”
“For a d—d villain always!” the man answered, “two hours since, for Theresa Allan’s murderer! and now, thanks to this paper, which, please God, I shall keep, for Theresa Allan’s—husband!”
He spoke the last words in a voice of thunder, and at the same time drew and cocked, at a single motion, a pistol with each hand.
“You know too much—you know too much!” cried Jasper, furious but undaunted. “One of us two must die, ere either leaves this room.”
“It was for that end I came hither! Look at me now, and know Durzil Bras-de-fer—Theresa Allan’s cousin! your wife’s rejected lover once, and now—your wife’s avenger!”
“Away! I will not fight you!”
“Then, coward, with my own hands will I hang you on the oak tree before your own door; and on your breast I will pin this paper, and under it will write, ‘Her Murderer, taken in the fact, tried, condemned, executed by me,
“ ‘Durzil Bras-de-fer.’ ”
“Never!”