at now. You have accepted Dutchy's challenge, and
you'll have to fight this duel."

"I never was so thunderin' scat in all my life, by gum! My knees don't
feel strong enough to hold me up. Haow duz a feller feel when he's
goin' ter faint away?"

"Oh, you're not going to faint. That's what the Dutchman's counting
on. He wants to scare you out of it. He's even made his boasts that
you Yankees haven't any courage, and that you'll run."

"Oh, he has, has he?" grated Ephraim. "Bust his skin!"

"He doesn't believe you'll dare fight him," continued. Sammy,
concealing a grin with his hand. "That's what he's counting on. If
you put on a bold front, you'll scare him out of his shoes. I'll bet
he'll run away before the word is given to fire."

"Think so?" asked the Vermonter, eagerly. "Do ye really?"

"Of course. Look how much more of him there is than there is of you.
Why, you'd be sure to hit him the first shot, while he has not one
chance in a hundred of hitting you. He has been chuckling over the way
your long legs will look when you run away."

"That settles it, by the jumping blizzards! Give me holt of that air
hoss-pistil! I'll show him whuther a Yankee'll run ur not, by
chaowder!"

"That's the stuff!" complimented the delighted Sammy, reaching up to
pat the tall plebe on the back. "Stick to that, and you will scare him
into convulsions. You must look as fierce and desperate as you can, so
he'll think you are thirsting for his gore."

The preliminaries were soon over, and the valiant duelists were placed
facing each other at a distance of fifteen paces. The old pistols,
loaded with heavy charges of powder, but minus bullets, were thrust
into their hands.

CHAPTER XLIV.

A COMEDY DUEL.

Both Hans and Ephraim were ghastly pale. The Dutch lad's teeth were
chattering, and the Yankee boy's knees shook beneath him. But both
tried to put on a bold front.

"Are ye ready, jintlemin?" demanded Barney Mulloy, who had been chosen
to give the word.

"Vait a moment," commanded Hans, waving his hand frantically at Barney.
"I vos goin' to gif dot feller a shance to safe his life. Uf he vants
to abologize now I vont shood him drough der heart mit a pullet."

"Hurry up this business!" blustered Ephraim, waving the big pistol.
"If ye fool around here all night it will git so thunderin' dark I
can't see ter hit ther middle button on the Dutchman's coat."

"Vos you goin' to abologize?" shouted Ha