"I won't say I would think nothing of you, for I can't imagine, let alone contemplate, such a contingency. But--now we are on the subject-- I would like to hear your side of--of--all these stories. Don't think that I doubt you--never think that, dearest--but I would like to be able to fling the lie in their faces." He was silent for a few moments as they paced up and down. They were out of earshot of the stockade but in full view of all within it. To all intents and purposes they were only two people walking up and down in ordinary converse, as a couple of ship-board acquaintances might walk up and down the deck of a passenger ship. "Some years ago," he resumed, "I had a quarrel with a man--a man who had been my friend. He had played me a dirty trick--a very dirty trick--the nature of it doesn't matter, any more than his identity, now. I am not an angel, and have my share of original sin, which includes a temper, though since then I have tried my level best to keep it within bounds. Well, from words we got to blows, and I was a fair boxer--" here Clare half smiled, in the midst of her vivid interest, as she remembered the tribute her brother-in-law had paid to his powers in that line, even while decrying his courage. "In the course of the scrimmage I struck him a blow that felled him. He lay motionless, and I and others thought he was dead. We brought him round though, but he had a bad concussion of the brain, and for weeks hovered between life and death. Moreover, he has never been the same man since. If I lived for a thousand years I could never forget what I went through during that time. Well, in the result I made a vow, a most solemn vow, that never again, even under the extremest of provocation, would I lift hand in anger against anybody, except under the most absolute necessity of self-defence--or in defence of others. And I never have." Clare's colour heightened and her eyes shone. Instinctively she put forth her hand to take his, and withdrew it instantly as she remembered that they were in full view of everybody. "Once, not long ago, up here, I put on the gloves with another man, a first-rate performer, for a friendly spar. But even with gloves on you can do a good deal of grim slogging. Somehow it came upon me--I believe I was getting the best of it, I'm not sure--that the thing was getting too real, and a vivid recollection of that other affair seemed to rise up like a ghost, and then and there I chucked up the sponge. Again they said I had funked." "Yes, I heard about that," she said. "But it didn't make any difference to me. I knew better all along, and told them so." "You told them so?" "Of course I did. You see, I knew you better than that--even though we hadn't done very much talking together, had we? And so that was your reason. Well you have adhered to your resolve--yes, grandly."