he stopped and faced about, I as instantly halted.

"Perhaps this spot may satisfy your requirements," he said sarcastically.
"'Tis far enough away at least, and the light is not so bad."

"It will do," I replied, and threw my scarlet jacket on the grass. "Strip
to the white, sir, and then we can see fairly well where to strike.
That's better. On guard!"

Neither of us had mentioned the lady, preferring to base our quarrel on
other grounds, yet I fully comprehended that some unreasonable jealousy
on his part had led up to all this. Whatever the relations between them
might be, his desires were clear enough, as well as his methods for
keeping others away. This knowledge merely nerved me to steadiness; she
would hear of it all later and understand. The fellow's right to resent
the small attentions I had shown to Mistress Mortimer I questioned
greatly--she had plainly enough denied the existence of any relationship
between them other than family friendship,--and I meant to teach this
loyalist bully that I was not the sort to be driven away by loud words,
or the flash of a sword.

He came at me fiercely enough, confident of his mastery of the weapon,
and, no doubt, expecting me to prove an easy victim of his skill. His
first onslaught, a trick thrust under my guard, caused me to give back a
step or two, and this small success yielded him the over-confidence I
always prefer that an opponent have. I was young, agile, cool-headed,
instructed since early boyhood by my father, a rather famous swordsman,
in the mysteries of the game, yet I preferred that Grant should deem me a
novice. With this in mind, and in order that I might better study the
man's style, I remained strictly on defence, giving way slightly before
the confident play of his steel, content with barely turning aside the
gleaming point before it pricked me. At first he mistook this for
weakness, sneering at my parries, as he bore in with increasing
recklessness.

"A club would be more in your line, I take it, Mr. Lieutenant Fortesque,"
he commented sarcastically, "but I'll play with you a while for
practice--ah! that was a lucky turn of the wrist! So you do know a trick
or two? Perhaps you have a parry for that thrust as well! Ah! an inch
more and I'd have pricked you--your defence is not bad for a boy! By all
the gods, I tasted blood then--now I'll give you a harder nut to crack!"

I was fighting silently, with lips closed, husbanding my breath, scarcely
hea