himself, and I flatter myself that if I chose to do so, I could kill him
with the same certainty. I shall not choose to do so. I don't want the
blood of any man--not even of a ruffian like this--to rest upon my head.
I shall simply prevent him from ever fighting another duel."

Captain Lister and the young cornet gazed at Frank as if they doubted
his sanity.

"Do you quite know what you are saying, lad?" the former said kindly,
after a pause. "You don't look as if you had been taking anything before
dinner, and we know that you are always abstemious at mess; still you
are talking strangely."

"I daresay you think so," Frank replied with a smile. "You fancy the
excitement of this quarrel has a little turned my head. But it has not
done so. In the first place, I have learnt to be so quick in firing that
I am sure to get first shot."

"Yes, you might do that, lad," Captain Lister said sadly; "but it would
be the very worst thing you could do. With a hurried shot like that it
would be ten to one you missed him, and then he would quietly shoot you
down."

"Not only shall I not miss him," Frank replied, "but I will lay you any
wager you like that I will carry off his trigger-finger, and probably
the second and third. Feel my hand. You see I am perfectly cool--as cool
as I shall be to-morrow--and I do not think there is anything wild about
my eye. It is simply as I say: I am a first-rate shot--probably as much
better than Marshall as he is better than Wilmington. Ah, here is his
man! Please arrange it for to-morrow morning, if possible. The sooner it
is over the better."

Captain Lister nodded and went out. He returned in a quarter of an hour.

"It is to come off to-morrow," he said, "at six o'clock. It is to be in
the field outside the wall, on the other side of the town. I have told
my man to have the dogcart ready at half-past five. It did not take us
long to arrange matters. His second is Rankin, of his regiment; and I
don't think he liked the job at all. He began by saying:

"'I am afraid, Captain Lister, that there is no chance of our arranging
this unhappy business. Nothing short of a public apology, and the
acknowledgment that Mr. Wyatt was in liquor when he uttered the words
will satisfy my principal, and I had great difficulty in bringing him
even to assent to that.'

"I said that you had not the most remote idea of making any apology
whatever. Therefore, we had only to arrange the preliminaries of a
mee