r. Morris, "you will think I
have sufficiently rewarded you; for I could offer neither a more
valuable service than to make him acquainted with the other."

"And now," said Major O'Rooke, "is it a duel?"

"A duel after a fashion," replied Mr. Morris, "a duel with unknown and
dangerous enemies, and, as I gravely fear, a duel to the death. I must
ask you," he continued, "to call me Morris no longer; call me, if you
please, Hammersmith; my real name, as well as that of another person to
whom I hope to present you before long, you will gratify me by not
asking, and not seeking to discover for yourselves. Three days ago the
person of whom I speak disappeared suddenly from home; and, until this
morning, I received no hint of his situation. You will fancy my alarm
when I tell you that he is engaged upon a work of private justice. Bound
by an unhappy oath, too lightly sworn, he finds it necessary, without
the help of law, to rid the earth of an insidious and bloody villain.
Already two of our friends, and one of them my own born brother, have
perished in the enterprise. He himself, or I am much deceived, is taken
in the same fatal toils. But at least he still lives and still hopes,
as this billet sufficiently proves."

And the speaker, no other than Colonel Geraldine, proffered a letter,
thus conceived:--

"MAJOR HAMMERSMITH,--On Wednesday, at 3 A.M., you will be admitted by
the small door to the gardens of Rochester House, Regent's Park, by a
man who is entirely in my interest. I must request you not to fail me
by a second. Pray bring my case of swords, and, if you can find them,
one or two gentlemen of conduct and discretion to whom my person is
unknown. My name must not be used in this affair.

T. GODALL."

"From his wisdom alone, if he had no other title," pursued Colonel
Geraldine, when the others had each satisfied his curiosity, "my friend
is a man whose directions should implicitly be followed. I need not tell
you, therefore, that I have not so much as visited the neighbourhood of
Rochester House; and that I am still as wholly in the dark as either of
yourselves as to the nature of my friend's dilemma. I betook myself, as
soon as I had received this order, to a furnishing contractor, and, in a
few hours, the house in which we now are had assumed its late air of
festival. My scheme was at least original; and I am far from regretting
an action which has procured me the services of Major O'Rooke and