d I cried out, 'You'd better not!'

"'Who says that?' cries he. 'Where 's the cowardly rascal that has n't
the courage to step forward and repeat these words?' and with that I
advanced two paces, and, putting my gun to my shoulder, took a steady
aim at him. I had him covered. If I pulled the trigger, he was a dead
man; but I could n't do it,--no, if I got the whole world for it, I
could n't; and do you know why?--here it is, then: It was the way he
stood up, bould and straight, with one hand on his breast, and the other
on the hilt of his sword, and he cried out, 'Fire! you scoundrel, fire!'
Bad luck to me if I could; but I walked on, covering him all the while,
till I got within ten paces of the wall, and then I threw down my
musket, and with a run I cleared it, and jumped into the sea. He fired
both his pistols at me, and one ball grazed my head; but I dived and
swam and dived till he lost sight of me; and it was half an hour before
they got out a boat, and before that I was snug hiding between the
rocks, and so close to him that I could hear him swearing away like mad.
When it was dark I crept out, and made my way along the shore to
Pesaro, and all the way here. Indeed, I had only to say anywhere I was
a deserter, and every one was kind to me. And do you know, sir, now that
it's all over, I'm glad I didn't shoot him in cold blood?"

"Of course you are," said Tony, half sternly.

"But if I am," rejoined the other,--"if I am glad of it, it's a'most
breaking my heart to think I 'm going back to Ireland without a chance
of facing him in a fair fight."

"You could do that, too, if you were so very anxious for it," said Tony,
gravely.

"Do you tell me so? And how, sir?"

"Easy enough, Rory. I 'm on my way now to join a set of brave fellows
that are going to fight the very soldiers your Major will be serving
with. The cause that he fights for, I need not tell you, can't be a very
good one."

"Indeed, it oughtn't," said Rory, cautiously.

"Come along with me, then; if it's only fighting you ask for, there 's a
fellow to lead us on that never balked any one's fancy that way. In four
days from this we can be in the thick of it I don't want to persuade
you in a hurry, Rory. Take a day--take two--three days, if you like, to
think of it."

"I won't take three minutes. I'll follow your honor to the world's end!
and if it gives me a chance to come up with the Major, I 'll bless the
hour I met you."

Tony now told him--