you would."

I made an effort to collect my thoughts, and succeeded. It was useless
to treat the affair otherwise than seriously in his presence; it would
have been cruel not to have advised him as I best could.

"You know," I said, "that two days after the drawing up of the agreement
at Naples, the duel was fought out of the Neapolitan States. This
fact has of course led you to the conclusion that all inquiries about
localities had better be confined to the Roman territory?"

"Certainly; the search, such as it is, has been made there, and there
only. If I can believe the police, they and their agents have inquired
for the place where the duel was fought (offering a large reward in my
name to the person who can discover it) all along the high road from
Naples to Rome. They have also circulated--at least so they tell
me--descriptions of the duelists and their seconds; have left an agent
to superintend investigations at the post-house, and another at the town
mentioned as meeting-points in the agreement; and have endeavored, by
correspondence with foreign authorities, to trace the Count St. Lo and
Monsieur Dalville to their place or places of refuge. All these efforts,
supposing them to have been really made, have hitherto proved utterly
fruitless."

"My impression is," said I, after a moment's consideration, "that all
inquiries made along the high road, or anywhere near Rome, are likely to
be made in vain. As to the discovery of your uncle's remains, that is, I
think, identical with the discovery of the place where he was shot; for
those engaged in the duel would certainly not risk detection by carrying
a corpse any distance with them in their flight. The place, then, is
all that we want to find out. Now let us consider for a moment. The
dueling-party changed carriages; traveled separately, two and two;
doubtless took roundabout roads; stopped at the post-house and the town
as a blind; walked, perhaps, a considerable distance unguided. Depend
upon it, such precautions as these (which we know they must have
employed) left them very little time out of the two days--though they
might start at sunrise and not stop at night-fall--for straightforward
traveling. My belief therefore is, that the duel was fought somewhere
near the Neapolitan frontier; and, if I had been the police agent who
conducted the search, I should only have pursued it parallel with the
frontier, starting from west to east till I got up among the lonely