"But at th' time, I didn't hardly feel I was hit. I jest jumped fer him, an' over we went together, clawin' like Kilkenny cats, into a ditch half full o' mud. It was that had stopped him, but I didn't see it till I was right on it, an' it was too late then t' stop. Well, that mud was somethin' fierce--but ye kin jedge fer yerselves," he added, with an expressive gesture at his bedraggled attire and that of his opponent. "It didn't last very long, though," he added, "or I reckon we'd both been suffycated. I got one good lick at his eye, and then got a hold of his neck, an' he jest wilted. He wasn't no match fer me, nohow--he's too long an' spindle-legged. Well, I managed t' git him out o' th' ditch, an' marched him back here,--an' that's all," he added, abruptly. For a moment Mr. Schofield did not speak, but sat looking at Nevins with an expression of loathing as though that worthy were something venomous and unclean. "Nevins," he said, at last, "I have known a good many cold-blooded scoundrels in my day, but none to compare with you. I believe I am speaking the exact truth when I say that hanging would be too good for you. You are a disgrace to humankind--you ought to be hunted off the earth like vermin--you and that rascally comrade of yours." Nevins shivered and shrank together under the withering tone. "How did you get mixed up with such a scoundrel?" asked the trainmaster, at last. "He--he made me," Nevins blurted out. He had intended, at first, to deny everything, to brazen it out, to affirm his innocence of any wrong-doing. But the net of evidence had been drawn too tightly around him; he saw there was no possible chance of escape. "_Made_ you?" repeated Mr. Schofield. "You mean he had a hold of some kind upon you?" "He--I was afraid of him," muttered Nevins, sullenly. "He said he wanted to get even with West for sending him to the pen." "And you agreed to help? Not only that, it was you who furnished the plan. I know very well that Nolan hasn't sense enough to work out such a pretty one." "He said he wanted to get even with West," Nevins repeated. "He wanted to break him, to disgrace him, to make him lose his job, to give him something to think about all the rest of his life." "Yes, it was a pretty plan," said Mr. Schofield, musingly; "about the most fiendish I ever heard of. Suppose you tell us how it was worked." Nevins grinned cunningly. "I'm not going to incriminate myself," he said "I'm not such a fool." Mr. Schofield made a gesture of impatience. "Don't be afraid," he said. "You can't incriminate yourself any more than you are incriminated. Besides, all I'm going to do to you is fire you, and I'd do that if you never spoke another word in your life. I've said hanging is too good for you, but I'm going to let somebody else take the trouble of having you convicted. This won't be your last scrape--unless you make a decided 'bout face! But I'll get Nolan," he added. "I'll get Nolan, if it takes a dozen years."