CHAPTER XXVIII--CAPITULATION 

When Sheldon emerged from among the trees he found Joan waiting at the compound gate, and he could not fail to see that she was visibly gladdened at the sight of him. 

"I can't tell you how glad I am to see you," was her greeting. "What's become of Tudor? That last flutter of the automatic wasn't nice to listen to. Was it you or Tudor?" 

"So you know all about it," he answered coolly. "Well, it was Tudor, but he was doing it left-handed. He's down with a hole in his shoulder." He looked at her keenly. "Disappointing, isn't it?" he drawled. 

"How do you mean?" 

"Why, that I didn't kill him." 

"But I didn't want him killed just because he kissed me," she cried. 

"Oh, he did kiss you!" Sheldon retorted, in evident surprise. "I thought you said he hurt your arm." 

"One could call it a kiss, though it was only on the end of the nose." She laughed at the recollection. "But I paid him back for that myself. I boxed his face for him. And he did hurt my arm. It's black and blue. Look at it." 

She pulled up the loose sleeve of her blouse, and he saw the bruised imprints of two fingers. 

Just then a gang of blacks came out from among the trees carrying the wounded man on a rough stretcher. 

"Romantic, isn't it?" Sheldon sneered, following Joan's startled gaze. "And now I'll have to play surgeon and doctor him up. Funny, this twentieth-century duelling. First you drill a hole in a man, and next you set about plugging the hole up." 
Did he?
a kiss, though it was only on the end of the nose."