I'll go through this town like a fine-tooth comb but what I'll find
him. He will never escape me. My name is Yancey, suh!"
The judge was more conservative. He had grave doubts as to whether a
second challenge, after a delay of two days and two nights, could be
sent at all. The traditions of the Carter family were a word and a
blow, not a blow and a word in two days. To intrust the letter to the
United States mail was a grave mistake; the colonel might have known
that it would miscarry.
Fitz said grimly that letters always did, without stamps. The Government
was running the post-office on a business basis, not for its health.
Yancey looked at Fitz as if the interruption wearied him, then, turning
to the colonel, said that he was dumbfounded that a man who had been
raised as Colonel Carter could have violated so plain a rule of the
code. A challenge should always be delivered by the hand of the
challenger's friend. It should never be mailed.
The poor colonel, who since the discovery of the unstamped letter had
sat in a heap buried in his coat collar,--the military button having
given way,--now gave his version of the miscarriage.
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