“Then what does this impertinent nonsense mean? Why am I summoned here?” demanded Hotchkiss furiously.
“Because,” said the Colonel deliberately, “that statement is infamously--yes, damnably to your discredit, sir!”
Mr. Hotchkiss was here seized by one of those impotent and inconsistent rages which occasionally betray the habitually cautious and timid man. He caught up the Colonel's stick, which was lying on the table. At the same moment the Colonel, without any apparent effort, grasped it by the handle. To Mr. Hotchkiss's astonishment, the stick separated in two pieces, leaving the handle and about two feet of narrow glittering steel in the Colonel's hand. The man recoiled, dropping the useless fragment. The Colonel picked it up, fitted the shining blade in it, clicked the spring, and then rising with a face of courtesy yet of unmistakably genuine pain, and with even a slight tremor in his voice, said gravely,--
“Mr. Hotchkiss, I owe you a thousand apologies, sir, that--er--a weapon should be drawn by me--even through your own inadvertence--under the sacred protection of my roof, and upon an unarmed man. I beg your pardon, sir, and I even withdraw the expressions which provoked that inadvertence. Nor does this apology prevent you from holding me responsible--personally responsible--ELSEWHERE for an indiscretion committed in behalf of a lady--my--er--client.”
“Your client? Do you mean you have taken her case? You, the counsel for the Ditch Company?” asked Mr. Hotchkiss, in trembling indignation.
“Having won YOUR case, sir,” replied the Colonel coolly, “the--er--usages of advocacy do not prevent me from espousing the cause of the weak and unprotected.”
“We shall see, sir,” said Hotchkiss, grasping the handle of the door and backing into the passage. “There are other lawyers who”--
“Permit me to see you out,” interrupted the Colonel, rising politely.
--“will be ready to resist the attacks of blackmail,” continued Hotchkiss, retreating along the passage.
“And then you will be able to repeat your remarks to me IN THE STREET,” continued the Colonel, bowing, as he persisted in following his visitor to the door.
But here Mr. Hotchkiss quickly slammed it behind him, and hurried away. The Colonel returned to his office, and sitting down, took a sheet of letter-paper bearing the inscription “Starbottle and Stryker, Attorneys and Counselors,” and wrote the following lines:--