"and
I'll not fail of my appointment. Our game will be played with
broadswords."

"If it should so turn out, James, that you and me are to work through a
campaign in the same quarter of the world, as we have done afore, James,
I expect, I'll take the chance of some holiday to pay my respects to
you. I wont trouble you to ride far to find me; and then, it may be
broadsword or pistol, rifle or bagnet, I'm not over-scrumptious which.
Only promise I shall see you when I send for you."

"It's a bargain, Galbraith Robinson! Strong as you think yourself in
your cursed rough-and-tumble horseplay, I am soldier enough for you any
day. I only ask that the time may come quickly."

"You have no objection to give us a hand to clinch that bargain, James?"
asked Horse Shoe. "There's my paw; take it, man, I scorn to bear malice
after the hot blood cools."

"I take it with more pleasure now," said Curry, hastily seizing the
hand, "than I gave mine to you before to-night, because it is a pledge
that suits my humor. A good seat in a saddle, four strong legs below me,
and a sharp blade, I hold myself a match for the best man that ever
picked a flint in your lines."

"Now, friend Curry," exclaimed the sergeant, "good night! Go look for
your pop-guns in the river; and if you find them, hold them as a
keepsake to remember Horse Shoe Robinson. Good night."

Robinson left his adversary, and returned to the inn, ruminating, as he
walked, over the strange incident in which he had just been engaged. For
a while his thoughts wore a grave complexion; but, as his careless good
humor gradually broke forth through the thin mist that enveloped it, he
was found, before he reached the porch, laughing, with a quiet chuckle,
at the conceit which rose upon his mind, as he said, half-audibly, "Odd
sport for a summer night! Howsever, every one to his liking, as the old
woman said; but to my thinking, he mought have done better if he had
gone to sleep at a proper hour, like a moralised and sober Christian."

When he entered the parlor, he found Butler and the landlady waiting for
him.

"It is late, sergeant," said the Major. "You have forgotten the hour;
and I began to fear you had more to say to your friend, there, than
suited the time of night."

"All is right, by your smiling," added the landlady; "and that's more
than I expected at the time you walked out of the room. I couldn't go to
my bed, till I was sure you and my lodger had no disagreeable