a turkey by that fire-eater with the fierce mustache! It is awful,
awful!"

"But you were eager to fight the young fellow."

"No, I was not. I was simply putting up a bluff, as you call it. I was
doing my level best to get you out of the scrape, Frank. I didn't think
he would fight me, and so I pretended to be eager to meet him. And now
see what a scrape I am in! Oh, my soul and body! What can I do?"

"Fight."

"Never!"

"I don't see how you can get out of it."

"I'll run away."

In a moment Frank became very grave.

"That is impossible, professor," he said, with the utmost apparent
sincerity. "Think of the disgrace! It would be in all the papers that
Professor Scotch, a white-livered Northerner, after insulting Colonel La
Salle Vallier and presenting his card, had taken to his heels in the
most cowardly fashion, and had fled from the city without giving the
colonel the satisfaction that is due from one gentleman to another. The
Northern papers would copy, and you would find yourself the butt of
ridicule wherever you went."

The professor let out a groan that was more dismal and doleful than any
sound that had previously issued from his lips.

"What can I do?" he gasped.

"There is one way to get out of the difficulty."

"Name it! name it!" shouted the wretched man. "I'll do anything!"

"Then commit suicide."

The professor collapsed again.

"Are you entirely heartless?" he moaned. "Can you joke when I am
suffering such misery?"

His face was covered with perspiration, and he was all a-quiver, so that
Frank was really touched.

"You can apologize, professor."

"Apologize for what? I don't know that I have done anything to apologize
for; but then I'll apologize rather than fight."

"Well, I guess you'll be able to get out of it some way."

But it was no easy thing to reassure the agitated man, as Frank soon
discovered.

"I'll tell you what, professor," said the boy; "you may send a
representative--a substitute."

"I don't think it will be easy to find a substitute."

"Oh, I'll find one."

"Perhaps Colonel Vallier will not accept him."

"But you must be too ill to meet the colonel, and then he'll have to
accept the substitute or nothing."

"But who will act as substitute? I don't know any one in New Orleans
who'll go and be shot in my place."

"Barney Mulloy has agreed to join us here, and he may arrive on any
train," went on Frank, mentioning an old school chum.

"That wild Irishman