Federal judge had, as was expected,
dismissed the prisoners on their own recognizances, and that Captain
Pinckney was at the hotel at breakfast. In the like abstracted manner he
replied to the one or two questions of the deputy, exhibited the pistols
he had brought with him, and finally accompanied him to a little meadow
hidden by trees, below the hotel, where the other principal and his
seconds were awaiting them. And here he awoke--clear-eyed, keen,
forceful, and intense!

So stimulated were his faculties that his sense of hearing in its
acuteness took in every word of the conversation between the seconds,
a few paces distant. He heard his adversary's seconds say carelessly
to the deputy sheriff, "I presume this is a case where there will be no
apology or mediation," and the deputy's reply, "I reckon my man means
business, but he seems a little queer." He heard the other second laugh,
and say lightly, "They're apt to be so when it's their first time out,"
followed by the more anxious aside of the other second as the deputy
turned away,--"Yes, but by G-d I don't like his looks!" His sense of
sight was also so acute that having lost the choice of position, when
the coin was tossed, and being turned with his face to the sun, even
through the glare he saw, with unerring distinctness of outline, the
black-coated figure of his opponent moved into range--saw the perfect
outline of his features, and how the easy, supercilious smile, as he
threw away his cigar, appeared to drop out of his face with a kind of
vacant awe as he faced him. He felt his nerves become as steel as the
counting began, and at the word "three," knew he had fired by the recoil
of the pistol in his leveled hand, simultaneously with its utterance.
And at the same moment, still standing like a rock, he saw his
adversary miserably collapse, his legs grotesquely curving inwards
under him,--without even the dignity of death in his fall,--and so sink
helplessly like a felled bull to the ground. Still erect, and lowering
only the muzzle of his pistol, as a thin feather of smoke curled up its
shining side, he saw the doctor and seconds run quickly to the heap, try
to lift its limp impotence into shape, and let it drop again with the
words, "Right through the forehead, by G-d!"

"You've done for him," said the deputy, turning to Clarence with a
singular look of curiosity, "and I reckon you had better get out of this
mighty quick. They didn't expect it; they're jus