PREPARING TO FIRE. 213 



for. I infer from your keeping your appointment that 

 you still refuse to resign your claim to Miss Frazer ?" 



" I have already said enough on that point," replied 

 Pierre. "We have come here, I suppose, for another 

 object than mutual recriminations." 



" Enough," answered M'Leod. " Your blood be upon 

 your own head. Take your stand by this tree. I will 

 stand beside that pine an hundred yards down the 

 meadow ; and at the word ' Three,' we will raise our 

 rifles and fire." 



Without a word Pierre placed himself beneath the 

 boughs of a tree which stood by the spot, and watched 

 his relentless adversary as he strode towards a solitary 

 pine, whose scathed and weather-bleached branches 

 stretched like the arms of a skeleton from the lifeless 

 trunk. Upon the topmost twig a vulture perched in 

 an uneasy balance, and with sleepy eye seemed pre- 

 pared to view the contest, his foul instincts having 

 apparently led him to the spot in anticipation of a 

 meal. 



Pierre shuddered as he heard the dismal croak of the 

 ominous bird, which ogled M'Leod without alarm as 

 he approached the withered pine. A thought as swift 

 as light shot through the young trapper's brain the op- 

 portunity suggested it. M'Leod had not quite reached 

 the spot from which he intended to fire ; his back was 

 turned, and Pierre stood with rifle cocked and ready. 

 But from whatever source the thought had sprung, the 

 hunter repelled it as unworthy. Another moment and 



