stand! Demn me, sir, had to put him into position with kitchen
poker down his back, and two sections of lightning-rod in his--er--
trousers, demn me! Firm, sir, firm, you understand, here (striking
his breast), but--here (striking his legs)--er--er--wobbly! No,
sir! Intoxication of principal not a bar, sir, to personal
satisfaction! (Goes towards sofa with eyeglass.) Good Ged! why,
it's Diego! (Returning stifly to OAKHURST.) Excuse me, sir, but
this is a case in which I cannot act. Cannot, sir,--impossible!
absurd! pre--post--or--ous! I recogmze in the--er--inebriated
menial on yonder sofa a person, sir, who, having already declined
my personal challenge, is--er--excluded from the consideration of
gentlemen. The person who lies there, sir, is Diego,--a menial of
Don Jose Castro,---alias "Sandy," the vagabond of Red Gulch.

Oakhurst. You have omitted one title, his true one. He is
Alexander Morton, the son of the master of this house.

Starbottle (starting in bewilderment). Alexander Morton! (Aside.)
Ged! my first suspicions were correct. Star, you have lost the
opportunity of making your fortune as a scoundrel; but you have at
a pecuniary sacrifice, preserved your honor.

Oakhurst. Yes. Hear me, Col. Starbottle. I have summoned you
here to-night, as I have already intimated, on an affair of honor.
I have sought you as my father's legal counsel, as a disinterested
witness, as a gentleman of honor. The man who lies before you was
once my friend and partner. I have wronged him doubly. As his
partner, I ran away with the woman he believed, and still believes,
to be his wife; as his friend, I have for a twelvemonth kept him
from the enjoyment of his home, his patrimony, by a shameful