s thin lips.

"I don't," said Mahaffy, and relapsed into a moody and anxious silence.
He held dueling in very proper abhorrence, and only his feeling of
intense but never-declared loyalty to his friend had brought him there.

Another interval of waiting succeeded.

"I have about reached the end of my patience; I shall wait just ten
minutes longer," said Fentress, and drew out his watch.

"Something has happened--" began Mahaffy.

"I have kept my engagement; he should have kept his," Fentress
continued, addressing Ware. "I am sorry to have brought you here for
nothing, Tom."

"Wait!" said Mahaffy, planting himself squarely before Fentress.

"I consider this comic episode at an end," and Fentress pocketed his
watch.

"Scarcely!" rejoined Mahaffy. His long arm shot out and the open palm of
his hand descended on the colonel's face. "I am here for my friend," he
said grimly.

The colonel's face paled and colored by turns.

"Have you a weapon?" he asked, when he could command his voice. Mahaffy
exhibited the pistol he had carried to Belle Plain the day before.

"Step off the ground, Tom." Fentress spoke quietly. When Ware had done
as he requested, the colonel spoke again. "You are my witness that I was
the victim of an unprovoked attack."

Mr. Ware accepted this statement with equanimity, not to say
indifference.

"Are you ready?" he asked; he glanced at Mahaffy, who by a slight
inclination of the head signified that he was. "I reckon you're a green
hand at this sort of thing?" commented Tom evilly.

"Yes," said Mahaffy tersely.

"Well, listen: I shall count, one, two, three; at the word three you
will fire. Now take your positions."

Mahaffy and the colonel stood facing each other, a distance of twelve
paces separating them. Mahaffy was pale but dogged, he eyed Fentress
unflinchingly. Quick on the word Fentress fired, an instant later
Mahaffy's pistol exploded; apparently neither bullet had taken effect,
the two men maintained the rigid attitude they had assumed; then Mahaffy
was seen to turn on his heels, next his arm dropped to his side and the
pistol slipped from his fingers, a look of astonishment passed over his
face and left it vacant and staring while his right hand stole up toward
his heart; he raised it slowly, with difficulty, as though it were held
down by some invisible weight.

A hush spread across the field. It was like one of nature's invisible
transitions. Along the edge of the woods the