of the hand was the only thing Kolberg was ever to receive in
lieu thereof.

They arrived at Kahle's garrison in due time, still in a somewhat
dazed condition. Kahle's second had attended to all the preliminaries
of the duel. It was a cold morning when two cabs rolled out of the
town on their way to the garrison shooting stands, where the bloody
meeting was to take place.

The sun was just peeping over the backs of the mountains to the east,
and sent his first oblique rays down upon the hoar-frosted stubble
fields.

Peacefully Nature spread her autumnal robe, and in the forest deep
silence reigned. The only sound, now and then, was the fluttering of a
dead leaf seeking its bed of repose on the bare earth.

In the first cab sat Kolberg, Borgert, and two surgeons, while the
second was occupied by Kahle, his second, and the two members of the
Council of Honor, who were to witness the duel as impartial judges.
Beneath the rear seat lay the case of pistols. From the highroad the
vehicles turned into a side path, so narrow that the branches of the
trees standing to right and left frequently beat against the cab
panes.

They reached their destination,--an opening in the woods. It was here,
secluded from all curious and observant eyes, that the officers of the
nearby garrison went to settle their "affairs of honor." The occupants
of both vehicles descended and ordered the drivers to ride back to the
edge of the woods, and there await their return.

The case containing the pistols was placed on a slight eminence, and
the seconds took out the weapons; then these were loaded, and both
pistols underwent an examination by the seconds.

The surgeons took off their coats, spread out their instruments, and
made ready strips of bandage. Meanwhile the judges had measured the
proper distance and had firmly planted their swords at either end, to
mark the terminal points. This was accomplished with some difficulty,
as the ground was frozen hard.

The customary formal attempt to effect a reconciliation was
ineffectual, of course, and so the two principals took their stands at
the indicated points.

Kahle looked pale; he trembled with the cold, and his
nervously-twitching features betrayed intense agitation.

Kolberg, on the contrary, was almost smiling, and threw away with a
careless gesture the stub of the cigarette he had been smoking until
the last.

One of the judges explained briefly the order of combat, saying that
the