"You refuse me an apology, do you?" Fred demanded, springing in front of Kellum, and barring his way to the door.
"Out of my way, grocer," the colonel shouted, with a laugh so insulting that Fred could contain himself no longer. He raised his hand and struck his opponent a light blow across his face.
Kellum swelled until I thought that every vein in his body would burst at the indignity. He muttered a few inaudible words, and then rubbed his forehead as though he did not half comprehend the insult, and wished to recall his scattered senses to know whether it was real.
"Now," said Fred, "you can go. I have repaid you insult for insult, and we are even-handed. If you desire satisfaction for the blow, you know where to find me."
"Yes, I can find you now!" Kellum hissed, with an oath of some magnitude; "you have struck me, and have sold your last pound of tea on earth."
"Look out!" shouted the stage agent; and his words of caution were none too soon, for the colonel drew his sword suddenly, and made a desperate lunge at Fred, which he avoided, and the point of the blade struck against a nail keg, and broke short off.
"A brave man, to refuse to meet a grocery dealer," my friend said, sarcastically; "I hope that the British army is not composed of such noble spirits as you; if it is assassination must be held in repute wherever there is a regiment."
The colonel was too angry to reply, but I thought that he seemed ashamed of his late attempt on the life of my friend, for he sheathed his sword without seeking to again use it.
"You shall hear from me in the course of the day," Kellum said, and without looking to the right or left he marched from the store, mounted his horse, and left our part of the town in peace.
"He is the most unscrupulous colonel in the English army," the agent said, after we had got rid of our unwelcome visitors; "he is feared by his men, and disliked by his officers, and he was never yet quartered in a town without finding cause to quarrel with some of the inhabitants. He has been sent here to crush this rebellion, and unless you shoot him he will do it, even if he has to shed torrents of blood.