"Head him off!"

And half of the party started after him at an express-train rate.
There was some very fine running indeed. Culkins was brought to
a sudden stop against a tall board fence, but he sprang back and
cleared it like an English hunter, and tore like a lunatic for
the city. Half an hour later the party might have been seen, if
it hadn't been so pesky dark, groping blindly around the office
in which Culkins had been a student at law.

"Are you here, Culkins?" said one.

"Before Culkins answers that," said a smothered voice in the
little room, "tell me who yez are."

"Friends--your seconds!"

"Gintlemin, Culkins is here. The last of the Culkinses is under
the bed."

He was dragged out.

"I hope," he said, "the ignoble wretch is not dead, but I call
you to witness, gintlemen, that he grossly insulted me."

(We don't care what folks say, but choking a man is a gross
insult.--Ed. P.D.)

He was persuaded to retire. There was no danger of his being