ll have it
out!"

"Then you will certainly fight. My dearest Tom, do look into your own
heart, and see whether you have not a grain or two of spite against him
left. I assure you you judge him too harshly."

"Hum--that must take its chance. At least, if we fight, we fight fairly
and equally. He is a brave man--I will do him that justice--and a cool
one; and used to be a sweet shot. So he has just as good a chance of
shooting me, if I am in the wrong, as I have of shooting him, if he is."

"But your father?"

"I know. That is very disagreeable; and all the more so because I am
going to insure my life--a pretty premium they will make me pay!--and if
I'm killed in a duel, it will be forfeited. However, the only answer to
that is, that either I shan't fight, or if I do, I shan't be killed. You
know I don't believe in being killed, Claude."

"Tom! Tom! The same as ever!" said Claude sadly.

"Well, old man, and what else would you have me? Nobody could ever alter
me, you know; and why should I alter myself? Here I am, after all, alive
and jolly; and there is old daddy, as comfortable as he ever can be on
earth: and so it will be to the end of the chapter. There! let's talk of
something else."

CHAPTER XVI.

COME AT LAST.

Now, as if in all things Tom Thurnall and John Briggs were fated to
take opposite sides, Campbell lost ground with Elsley as fast as he
gained it with Thurnall. Elsley had never forgiven himself for his
passion that first morning. He had shown Campbell his weak side, and
feared and disliked him accordingly. Beside, what might not Thurnall
have told Campbell about him? And what use might not the Major make of
his secret? Besides, Elsley's dread and suspicion increased rapidly when
he discovered that Campbell was one of those men who live on terms of
peculiar intimacy with many women; whether for his own good or not,
still for the good of the women concerned. For only by honest purity,
and moral courage superior to that of the many, is that dangerous post
earned; and women will listen to the man who will tell them the truth,
however sternly; and will bow, as before a guardian angel, to the strong
insight of him whom they have once learned to trust. But it is a
dangerous office, after all, for layman as well as for priest, that of
father-confessor. The experience of centuries has shown that they must
needs exist, wherever fathers neglect their daughters, husbands their
wives; wherever the av