e, and as he spoke the red sun made a
sudden glory of her hair. She leaned towards him, and it was as if the
spirit of all the man's lifelong, foolish, romantic musings were in her
eyes and on her face.

"Fight him!" she said. "And kill him!"

And then her head was on his shoulder, and his arms were about her.
"Don't die!" she sobbed. "Don't die!"

"Don't fear," he said, "I feel that I'll make short work of him."

She smiled courageously back at him; with her hands upon his shoulders
she held him back and looked at him with tilted head.

"If you are killed," she said, "it will have been more than most women
ever get, to have known and loved you for two days."

"Two days?" he said. "Forever!"

"Forever!" she said.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE DUEL

Cleggett took Wilton Barnstable by the sleeve and drew him towards
Loge, who, still seated on the deck with his long legs stretched out in
front of him, was now yawning with a cynical affectation of boredom.

"I wish you to act as my second in this affair," said Cleggett to the
detective, "and I suggest that either Mr. Ward or Mr. Bard perform a
like office for Mr. Black."

Loge shrugged his shoulders, and said with a sneer:

"A second, eh? We seem to be doing a great deal of arranging for a
very small amount of fighting."

"I suggest," said Wilton Barnstable, "that a night's rest would be
quite in order for both principals."

Loge broke in quickly, with studied insolence: "I object to the delay.
Mr. Cleggett might find some excuse for changing his mind overnight.
Let us, if you please, begin at once."

"It was not I who suggested the delay," said Cleggett, haughtily.

"Then give us the pistols," cried Loge, with a sudden, grim ferocity in
his voice, "and let's make an end of it!"

"We fight with swords," said Cleggett. "I am the challenged party."

"Ho! Swords!" cried Loge, with a harsh, jarring laugh. "A bout with
the rapiers, man to man, eh? Come, this is better and better! I may
go to the chair, but first I will spit you like a squab on a skewer, my
little nut!" And then he said again, with a shout of gusty mirth, and
a clanking of his manacles: "Swords, eh? By God! The little man says
SWORDS!"

Wilton Barnstable drew Cleggett to one side.

"Name pistols," he said. "For God's sake, Cleggett, name pistols! If
I had had any idea that you were going to demand rapiers I should have
warned you before."

Cleggett was amused at the great dete