IT was clear to those who were most interested in and most intimate with Jim Spedwick that his attachment to Mr. Lacey’s daughter, and his assault upon his rival, had involved him in a situation of extreme difficulty. How he was going to find his way out of it was by no means clear. He was as much in a tangle as was Pym himself; but unlike Pym he was a fair fighter, and not the man to avail himself of any mean advantage. He would checkmate his rival if he could, but he would checkmate him fairly. Necessarily his parents were painfully anxious about him, and urged with the eloquence of affection the advisability of his immediate return to Jamaica. But the lad could not make up his mind to do that. If he went away he gave the enemy a fair field. And though he had Norah’s assurance that she w
