Roger Scatcherd, when the news first reached him, filled himself with drink, and then swore that he would kill them both.  With manly wrath, however, he set forth, first against the man, and that with manly weapons.  He took nothing with him but his fists and a big stick as he went in search of Henry Thorne.

The two brothers were then lodging together at a farm-house close abutting on the town.  This was not an eligible abode for a medical practitioner; but the young doctor had not been able to settle himself eligibly since his father’s death; and wishing to put what constraint he could upon his brother, had so located himself.  To this farm-house came Roger Scatcherd one sultry summer evening, his anger gleaming from his bloodshot eyes, and his rage heightened to madness by the rapid pace at which he had run from the city, and by the ardent spirits which were fermenting within him.

At the very gate of the farm-yard, standing placidly with his cigar in his mouth, he encountered Henry Thorne.  He had thought of searching for him through the whole premises, of demanding his victim with loud exclamations, and making his way to him through all obstacles.  In lieu of that, there stood the man before him.

‘Well, Roger, what’s in the wind?’ said Henry Thorne.

They were the last words he ever spoke.  He was answered by a blow from the blackthorn.  A contest ensued; which ended in Scatcherd keeping his word—­at any rate, as regarded the worst offender.  How the fatal blow on the temple was struck was never exactly determined; one medical man said it might have been done in a fight with a heavy-headed stick; another thought that a stone had been used; a third suggested a stone-mason’s hammer.  It seemed, however, to be proved subsequently that no hammer was taken out, and Scatcherd himself persisted in declaring that he had taken in his hand no weapon but the stick.  Scatcherd, however, was drunk; and even though he intended to tell the truth, may have been mistaken.  There were, however, the facts that Thorne was dead; that Scatcherd had sworn to kill him about an hour previously; and that he had without delay accomplished the threat.  He was arrested and tried with murder, all the distressing circumstances of the case came out on the trial:  he was found guilty of man-slaughter, and sentenced to be imprisoned for six months.  Our readers will probably think that the punishment was too severe.

Thomas Thorne and the farmer were on the spot soon after Henry Thorne had fallen.  The brother was at first furious for vengeance against his brother’s murderer; but, as the facts came out, as he learnt what had been the provocation given, what had been the feelings of Scatcherd when he left the city, determined to punish him who had ruined his sister, his heart was changed.  Those were trying days for him.  It behoved him to do what in him lay to cover his brother’s memory from the obloquy which it deserved; it behoved him also to save, or to assist to save, from undue punishment the unfortunate man who had shed his brother’s blood; and it behoved him also, at least so he thought, to look after that poor fallen one whose misfortunes were less merited than those either of his brother or of hers.