"Oh! because if there is one, and you don't cut your cards a little differently, you'll be apt to find it at the end of your journey." "What do you mean by that?" asked the judge, retreating somewhat into himself, and trying to look dignified. "Just what I say," was unhesitatingly answered. "Do you mean to insinuate any thing?" asked the judge, whose brows were beginning to knit themselves. "Nobody thinks you a saint," replied the man, roughly. "I never professed to be." "And it is said"--the man fixed his gaze almost insultingly upon Judge Lyman's face--"that you'll get about as hot a corner in the lower regions as is to be found there, whenever you make the journey in that direction." "You are insolent!" exclaimed the judge, his face becoming inflamed. "Take care what you say, sir!" The man spoke threateningly. "You'd better take care what YOU say." "So I will," replied the other. "But--" "What's to pay here?" inquired a third party, coming up at the moment, and interrupting the speaker. "The devil will be to pay," said Judge Lyman, "if somebody don't look out sharp." "Do you mean that for me, ha?" The man, between whom and himself this slight contention had so quickly sprung up, began stripping back his coat sleeves, like one about to commence boxing. "I mean it for anybody who presumes to offer me an insult." The raised voices of the two men now drew toward them the attention of every one in the bar-room. "The devil! There's Judge Lyman!" I heard some one exclaim, in a tone of surprise. "Wasn't he in the room with Green when Willy Hammond was murdered?" asked another. "Yes, he was; and what's more, it is said he had been playing against him all night, he and Green sharing the plunder." This last remark came distinctly to the ears of Lyman, who started to his feet instantly, exclaiming fiercely: "Whoever says that is a cursed liar!" The words were scarcely out of his mouth, before a blow staggered him against the wall, near which he was standing. Another blow felled him, and then his assailant sprang over his prostrate body, kicking him, and stamping upon his face and breast in the most brutal, shocking manner. "Kill him! He's worse than Green!" somebody cried out, in a voice so full of cruelty and murder that it made my blood curdle. "Remember Willy Hammond!"