little difficult to carry out; perhaps it would be impossible to have it
wholly regular. And yet a duel might be very irregular in form, and,
under the peculiar circumstances of the case, loyal enough in effect. Do
you take me? Now, as a gentleman and a soldier."

His hand rose again at the words and hovered over me. I could bear no
more, and winced away from him. "No," I cried, "not that. Do not put
your hand upon my shoulder. I cannot bear it. It is rheumatism," I made
haste to add. "My shoulder is inflamed and very painful."

He returned to his chair and deliberately lighted a cigar.

"I am sorry about your shoulder," he said at last. "Let me send for the
doctor."

"Not in the least," said I. "It is a trifle. I am quite used to it. It
does not trouble me in the smallest. At any rate, I don't believe in
doctors."

"All right," said he, and sat and smoked a good while in a silence which
I would have given anything to break. "Well," he began presently, "I
believe there is nothing left for me to learn. I presume I may say that
I know all."

"About what?" said I boldly.

"About Goguelat," said he.

"I beg your pardon. I cannot conceive," said I.

"O," says the major, "the man fell in a duel, and by your hand! I am not
an infant."

"By no means," said I. "But you seem to me to be a good deal of a
theorist."

"Shall we test it?" he asked. "The doctor is close by. If there is not
an open wound on your shoulder, I am wrong. If there is----" He waved
his hand. "But I advise you to think twice. There is a deuce of a nasty
drawback to the experiment--that what might have remained private
between us two becomes public property."

"O, well!" said I, with a laugh, "anything rather than a doctor! I
cannot bear the breed."

His last words had a good deal relieved me, but I was still far from
comfortable.

Major Chevenix smoked a while, looking now at his cigar ash, now at me.
"I'm a soldier myself," he says presently, "and I've been out in my time
and hit my man. I don't want to run any one into a corner for an affair
that was at all necessary or correct. At the same time, I want to know
that much, and I'll take your word of honour for it. Otherwise, I shall
be very sorry, but the doctor must be called in."

"I neither admit anything nor deny anything," I returned. "But if this
form of words will suffice you, here is what I say: I give you my
parole, as a gentleman and a soldier, there has nothing taken place
am