They say that the record shows that there was an interpolation in the
paper he left with you--which was a forgery. Briefly, Harcourt, you are
accused of that. More,--it is intimated that when he fell into the creek
that night, and escaped on a raft that was floating past, that he had
been first stunned by a blow from some one interested in getting rid of
him."
He paused and glanced out of the window.
"Is that all?" asked Harcourt in a perfectly quiet, steady, voice.
"All!" replied Grant, struck with the change in his companion's manner,
and turning his eyes upon him quickly.
The change indeed was marked and significant. Whether from relief at
knowing the worst, or whether he was experiencing the same reaction from
the utter falsity of this last accusation that he had felt when Grant
had unintentionally wronged him in his previous recollection, certain it
is that some unknown reserve of strength in his own nature, of which
he knew nothing before, suddenly came to his aid in this extremity. It
invested him with an uncouth dignity that for the first time excited
Grant's respect.
"I beg your pardon, Grant, for the hasty way I spoke to you a moment
ago, for I thank you, and appreciate thoroughly and sincerely what you
have done. You are right; it is a matter for fighting and not fussing
over. But I must have a head to hit. Whose is it?"
"The man who holds himself legally responsible is Fletcher,--the
proprietor of the 'Clarion,' and a man of property.
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