's help, and ran against
Diccon.

"I got that bag of bones here at last, sir," he began. "If ever I"--His
eyes traveled past me, and he broke off.

"Don't stand there staring," I ordered. "Go bring the first woman you
meet."

"Is she dead?" he asked under his breath. "Have you killed her?"

"Killed her, fool!" I cried. "Have you never seen a woman swoon?"

"She looks like death," he muttered. "I thought"--

"You thought!" I exclaimed. "You have too many thoughts. Begone, and
call for help!"

"Here is Angela," he said sullenly and without offering to move, as,
light of foot, soft of voice, ox-eyed and docile, the black woman
entered the room. When I saw her upon her knees beside the motionless
figure, the head pillowed on her arm, her hand busy with the fastenings
about throat and bosom, her dark face as womanly tender as any English
mother's bending over her nursling; and when I saw my wife, with a
little moan, creep further into the encircling arms, I was satisfied.

"Come away!" I said, and, followed by Diccon, went out and shut the
door.

My Lord Carnal was never one to let the grass grow beneath his feet.
An hour later came his cartel, borne by no less a personage than the
Secretary of the colony.

I took it from the point of that worthy's rapier. It ran thus: "SIR,--At
what hour to-morrow and at what place do you prefer to die? And with
what weapon shall I kill you?"

"Captain Percy will give me credit for the profound reluctance with
which I act in this affair against a gentleman and an officer so high
in the esteem of the colony," said Master Pory, with his hand upon his
heart. "When I tell him that I once fought at Paris in a duel of six
on the same side with my late Lord Carnal, and that when I was last
at court my Lord Warwick did me the honor to present me to the present
lord, he will see that I could not well refuse when the latter requested
my aid."

"Master Pory's disinterestedness is perfectly well known," I said,
without a smile. "If he ever chooses the stronger side, sure he has
strong reasons for so doing. He will oblige me by telling his principal
that I ever thought sunrise a pleasant hour for dying, and that there
could be no fitter place than the field behind the church, convenient as
it is to the graveyard. As for weapons, I have heard that he is a good
swordsman, but I have some little reputation that way myself. If he
prefers pistols or daggers, so be it."

"I think we may assu