and turn the key therein. The next instant he turned to Jonathan
a visage transformed as suddenly as though he had dropped a mask
from his face. The gossiping and polite little old bachelor was
there no longer, but in his stead a man with a countenance
convulsed with some furious and nameless passion.

"That ball!" he cried, in a hoarse and raucous voice. "That ivory
ball! Give it to me upon the instant!"

As he spoke he whipped out from his bosom a long, keen Spanish
knife that in its every appearance spoke without equivocation of
the most murderous possibilities.

The malignant passions that distorted every lineament of the
countenance of the little old gentleman in black filled our hero
with such astonishment that he knew not whether he were asleep or
awake; but when he beheld the other advancing with the naked and
shining knife in his hand his reason returned to him like a
flash. Leaping to his feet, he lost no time in putting the table
between himself and his sudden enemy.

"Indeed, friend," he cried, in a voice penetrated with
terror--"indeed, friend, thou hadst best keep thy distance from
me, for though I am a man of peace and a shunner of bloodshed, I
promise thee that I will not stand still to be murdered without
outcry or without endeavoring to defend my life!"

"Cry as loud as you please!" exclaimed the other. "No one is near
this place to hear you! Cry until you are hoarse; no one in this
neighborhood will stop to ask what is the matter with you. I tell