best shore adventure
I've had since leaving home--something to talk about when we get aboard
the ship."

"Ay, and something to do besides talking. We've got a little writing to
do; at least I have--a bit of a letter to this swaggerer, Mr Francisco
de Lara."

"But, surely, you don't intend challenging him--after what's happened?"

"Surely I do. Though, to say the truth, I've no great stomach for it,
seeing the sort he is. It's _infra dig_ having to fight one's inferior,
though it be with sword or pistol. It feels like getting into a row
with roughs in some slum of a seaport."

"You're right there; and as to calling the fellow out, I'd do nothing of
the kind, Ned. He's a bad lot; so is the other. Blackguards both, as
their behaviour has shown them. They don't deserve to be treated as
gentlemen."

"But we're in California, Will; where the code of the duello takes in
such as they. Here even thieves and cut-throats talk about protecting
their honour, as they term it; ay, and often act up to their talk. I've
been told of a duel that took place not long since between two
professional gamblers, in which one of them was shot dead in his tracks.
And only the other day a judge was called out by a man he had tried,
and convicted, of some misdemeanour! Well, the judge not only went, but
actually killed the cad who'd stood before him as a criminal! All that
seems very absurd, but so it is. And if this scarlet-cloaked cavalier
don't show the white-feather, and back out, I'll either have to kill, or
cripple him; though like as not he may do one or the other for me."

"But don't you think, Ned, you've had enough out of him?"

"In what way?"

"Why, in the way of _revanche_. For my part, I should decidedly say you
had by far the best of it. After your first encounter in the morning, I
thought differently; and would have so counselled you. Then the insult
offered you remained unpunished. The other has put a different face on
the affair; and now that he's got more than he gave, I think you should
rest satisfied, and let things stand as they are--if he do. Certainly,
after that knock and tumble, it's his place to sing out."

"There's something in what you say, Will. And now, on reflection, I'm
not so sure that I'll take further trouble about the fellow, unless he
insist on it; which he may not, seeing he's unquestionably base coin--as
you say, a blackguard. He appears a sort of Californian bravo; and if
we hadn