smile on his face;
"perchance they are wise. For myself, I never trouble to do so. I
count a leech a needless encumbrance."

Tom looked curiously at the two foremost men as they drew near. One
of them struck him in particular. He was very tall and very
strongly made, though clumsy in figure and swarthy in face. He had
the look almost of a foreigner, Tom thought, with black eyes that
twinkled with an evil and sinister expression, and never showed
more than as a slit between half-shut lids. He was marked with
smallpox, and had taken no pains, today at any rate, to disguise
the ravages of that malady. He walked a little in advance of his
companions, and when he got near to Lord Claud he stopped and made
a sweeping bow, his eyes the while scanning Tom's face and figure
most closely.

"This is not the gentleman who waited on me," he said in a rasping
voice.

"No; that gentleman is laid up in his bed, and cannot keep his
appointment; but this one will do the business equally well.

"Mr. Tufton of Gablehurst; let me present him to you, Sir James."

The swarthy man looked Tom over from head to foot with an insolent
stare.

"A fine young cub," he said at length, "and well grown for his
years. One of the gang, I suppose?" and there was an ugly sneer
upon his thick lips.

Tom looked at Lord Claud, wondering what the meaning of those words
could be; but the quiet face looked as if carved in marble, save
only that the eyes glowed like fire in their sockets.

He signed to Tom to produce the rapiers; and the second man came
forward and examined and tested them, selecting that which his
principal should use. Then the ground was stepped, the most level
place selected, and the two combatants stripped off coat and
waistcoat, and prepared for the fray.

Tom drew his breath hard as he watched the commencement of the
fight, and his face was full of anxiety, as he felt that the man
addressed as Sir James had weight and length of reach beyond
anything that Lord Claud could command. But for a while both the
men fought warily and without attempting to get to close quarters,
and Tom began to lose his first breathless excitement, and to watch
the play of shining blades with more coolness and observation.

Two rounds had been fought, and neither man was wounded. But whilst
Lord Claud looked just as cool and steady as at the start, the dark
adversary was flushed and inclined to pant, and the beads of sweat
stood upon his forehead not