Ichabod looked up at the furious, dark face almost in surprise.

“Yes, I blew it,” he corroborated absently.

“It would have burned longer.”

“Perhaps––I don’t know.”

Arnold moved back a step and the old smile, mocking, maddening, spread over his face; 220 tilting, perpendicular, the tips of the big moustaches.

“After all––” very slowly––“after all, then, you’re a coward.”

The tall man stood up; six-feet-two, long, bony, immovable: Ichabod himself again.

“You know that’s a lie.”

“You’ll meet me again,––another way, then?”

“No, never!”