combat than
anyhow else, and, indeed, they almost have a traditional reverence for
the broad-sword of their country.

Nobody called on us to begin, but when the Black Colonel and I, our few
preparations made, had looked at each other for a minute from the
measured distance which divided us, we both advanced. As I had
expected, he came with a rush, and if it had not been for my sound
training in defence he might have smitten me at once. As it was, by a
turn which seemed new to him, I caught his sword under the point and
lifted it lightly upward into the empty air. He almost flew past me
with the motion which he had gathered, and we both had to face squarely
round in order that we might continue.

This time, apparently, he meant to be more deliberate, thinking,
perhaps, that if he missed me again with one of his wild lunges, he
might meet the sting of my thrust. He played with me, and I responded
to his caution, so far as he could be cautious, in the same spirit.
Our swords were of equal length and about the same weight, but he had a
longer arm than I, as well as a stronger one. Still, I made up for
this, as he began to realize, by quicker work in what might be called
the smaller craft of fighting. I could be here and there and somewhere
else with my sword, while he was making a parry or a lunge or a level
stroke, for he tried everything.

Now his sword ran safely under my left arm where I guided it, and the
point of mine caught the breast-high edge of his kilt, where the cloth
is closely plaited and therefore very resisting. My blade bent so that
if it had been other than the finest steel it might have snapped. Then
the grip in the cloth broke, the sword was free again, and we were
without hurt, only the battle was growing warm.

Its contagion had agitated the men looking on, to a point where,
forgetting themselves, they began to shout encouragement to us
severally, the Black Colonel's men to him, mine to me. Red Murdo was
urgently demonstrative, and my sergeant, as he afterwards told me, kept
an eye on him lest he should be tempted to intervene. In the distance
Marget, as I saw momentarily, stood still and quiet, but there was a
fixed anxiety in her face, and the woman's horror of two men seeking to
take each other's life on her account!

Now came the third bout, and knowing the limits of my strength I
determined to make it the last, if I could. The Black Colonel, it
encouraged me to notice, had also g