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It bore this address: P. A. KLUTCHEM, ESQ., Room 21, Star Building, Wall Street, Immediate. New York. The colonel turned pale and broke the seal. Out dropped his challenge! "Where did you get this?" he asked, aghast. "From the carrier. It was held for postage." Had a bombshell been exploded the effect could not have been more startling. Yancey was the first man on his feet.
"My idee, suh, now that I am on the ground, is for me to wait upon the gemman at once, hand him the orig'nal challenge, and demand an immediate answer. That is, "turning to Fitz, "unless he is in hidin'." Fitz replied that it was pretty clear to him that a man could not hide from a challenge he had never received. It was quite evident that Klutchem was detained somewhere.
"He was familiar, suh, and presumin' and offensive." Yancey broke away again, but Fitz sidetracked him with a gesture, and asked the colonel to repeat Klutchem's exact words. The colonel gazed at the ceiling a moment, and replied: "Mr. Klutchem said that, outside of peanuts and sweet potatoes, all my road would git for freight would be niggers and razor-back hogs." "Mr.
The colonel alighted first, ran up the steps, pulled the bell with the air of a doctor called to an important case, and sent his card to the first floor back. "Mr. Klutchem says, 'Walk up," said the maid. The broker was in an armchair with his back to the door, only the top of his bald head being visible as we entered. On a stool in front rested a foot of enormous size swathed in bandages.
If not, I shall rate you as rankin' with yo' yallar dog; and if you ever speak to me ag'in I will strike you, suh, with my cane." And the colonel, his eyes flashing, strode into the private office with the air of a field marshal, and shut the door. Klutchem looked around the room and into the startled faces of the clerks and bystanders, burst into a loud laugh, and left the office.
The colonel lost all control of himself. No man had ever thus dared before. "Stop, Mr. Klutchem! What I know, suh, I decline to discuss with you. Yo' statements are false, and yo' manner of expressin' them quite in keepin' with the evident vulga'ity of yo' mind. If I can ascertain that you have ever had any claim to be considered a gentleman you will hear from me ag'in.
Klutchem, that I have been hasty and have done you a wrong; and, suh, rememberin' my blood, I have left the cares of my office for a brief moment to call upon you at once, and tell you so. I regret, suh, that you have not the use of both yo' legs, but I have anticipated that difficulty. My caarriage is outside." "Don't mention it, Colonel. You never grazed me.
The colonel, anxious to place the exact situation before Major Yancey so that he might go back fully assured that everything that a Carter could do had been done, read the copy of the challenge, gave the details of Fitz's efforts to find Klutchem, the repeated visits to his office, and finally the call at his apartments.
"Out with it, old Garden Colonel," broke out Klutchem, catching himself in time, and apparently greatly relieved that the situation was no worse. The colonel, who remained standing, bowed courteously, drew himself up with a dress-parade gesture, and recounted slowly and succinctly the incidents of the preceding three days.
Klutchem was right, Colonel," said Fitz. "Very sensible man. They will form a very large part of our freight. Anything offensive in that remark of Klutchem's, Major Yancey?" The major conferred with the judge, and said reluctantly that there was not. "Go on, Colonel," continued Fitz. "Then, suh, he said he wouldn't trade a yaller dog for enough of our bonds to papah a meetin'-house."
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