blood at once, and for awhile Urquhart seemed just as eager. All of a
sudden, when...." here he broke off suddenly, not wishing to commit
himself.

"Tell me only what you think necessary," said I.

He thanked me. "That is what I wanted," he said. "Well, all of a
sudden, when we had found out a way and Urquhart was discussing it, he
pulled himself up in the middle of a sentence, and with his eyes fixed
on the other--a most curious look it was--he waited while you could
count ten, and, 'No,' says he, 'I'll not fight you at once'--for we
had been arranging something of the sort--'not to-night, anyway, nor
to-morrow,' he says. 'I'll fight you; but I won't have your blood on
my head _in that way_.' Those were his words. I have no notion what
he meant; but he kept repeating them, and would not explain, though
Mackenzie tried him hard and was for shooting across the table. He was
repeating them when the Major interrupted us and called him up."

"He has behaved ill from the first," said I. "To me the whole affair
begins to look like an abominable plot against Mackenzie. Certainly I
cannot entertain a suspicion of his guilt upon a bare assertion which
Urquhart declines to back with a tittle of evidence."

"The devil he does!" mused Captain Murray. "That looks bad for him.
And yet, sir, I'd sooner trust Urquhart than Mackenzie, and if the
case lies against Urquhart--"

"It will assuredly break him," I put in, "unless he can prove the
charge, or that he was honestly mistaken."