The Story Teller.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 166, 7 October 1892, Page 2

The Story Teller.

A STRANGE DUEL,

By

P. J. Kitching.

Ted Matthews and I were coming out of the cafe at which we had been accustomed to dine since our arrival at a little Q-ermnn watering place. In the doorway we came in jostling collision with two men in the act of entering, and, though the fault was more theirs than ours, Ted, who was slightly in advance apologised for the accident, and we were about passing out. when the taller of the strangers, both of whom had a military air, turning fiercely, struck Ted with his open hand upon the cheek. Raising his arm, with the quickness of lightning my friend dealt his assailant a blow between the eyes that would have felled a bullock. The man dropped heavily, and lay as motionless as if the stroke had crushed his skull. Evervthing was in commotion. The man’s companion knelt at his side and raised his head ; it.-was fully five minutes before the punished bully opened his eyes and was able to sit up. and as many more before he had ( convalesced) sufficiently to be pronounced out of danger. As I was leaving with Ted his late antagonist's associate said : ‘lt can hardly surprise you, sir, after what has happened that my friend, Colonel De Courcy, desires to be favoured with your address-’ Ted then handed the gentleman his card, and in return learned that he was Captain Parry, late of the British service, A few hours later, as Ted and I sat down in the foimer’s room talking over the recent unpleasant occurrence, a servant announced that two gentlemen had called and were waiting to see Mr Matthews in the public room below. • Come with me, Perciva!,’ said Ted. On going down we found, as wo expected, that the two visitors were none other than Colonel DeCourcy and his polite friend, the Captain. A greenish black tinge, which had already begun to settle about the colonel’s eyes, did not soften the sinister expression of his naturally swarthy features. He preserved a moody silence leaving the captain to speak.

i We have taken the precaution to secure a private room,’ said the latter. ‘ Will you accompany us to it, gentlemen ?’ He and his friend led the way, we following in silence. ‘ Of course, it would have been more regular,’ resumed the captain, when he had closed the dooi, ‘ first to have arranged the preliminaries without the presence of the principals, but the case is so urgent, and, in view of the viligance of the authorities, the danger of interruption so great, that my friend and I have deemed it important to have the affair concluded with the least possible delay ; and as tne circumstances leave no possible room for an amicable accommodation, there is nothing to be gained by spending time in discussion, Here is my friend, Colonel DeCourcj s challenge.’ ‘ I shall not accept it,’ replied Ted, handing back the note. ‘ But, think, my dear sir,’— -the captain began. ‘ I shall not be driven from my resolution/ interrupted Ted. ‘ Duelling is against my principles, and nothing you can offer can make me fight, ‘ Not even that V cried tne _ Colonel, springing forward, and with a riding whip which he drew from beneath his coat, giving Ted a sharp cut across the face which left a livid wale behind it, Ted’s frame quivered ; for a moment lie seemed on the point of flying at his insulter and strangling his life out —a result, in his then temper, which it would have cost him scarce an effort to accomplish. Suddenly he seemed to calm himself. ‘ I have changed my mind ’ he said, • I accept your challenge, My friend, Percival Deene, here will act as my second.’ The captain and I stepped aside, and then after a few moment’s private conversation, in which a meeting with pistols was arranged for an hour later at a designated place, the visitors took their leave, Ted wrote two letters, one to his widowed mother, and another to Alice Dawson, to whom he was to be married in six months These he committed to my care to be posted in case the worst should happen. Yv e had barely time left for our appointment, Colonel DeCourcy and the captain, with a surgeon they brought, were sum ad of

us—the former, watch in hand, counting the minutes with manifest impatience. The captain produced a case of pistols, which’he loaded in my presence, and then bade me choose one. The ground was measured, and the combatants placed, and each riven his weapon. The captain gave the word and both fired ; Ted stood unharmed, while the other reeled, pressed his hand to his breast, and fell backward on the ground. The Colonel’s second and surgeon bent over the wounded man, but had scarcely begun their examination when a loud, heart-rend-ing shriek broke the stillness, and a woman ran forward and threw herself upon the prostrate form. ‘ My husband ! my husband !’ she wailed, piteously , then raising herself on her knees, an 1 turning her lace, its features now set and rigid, toward Ted, where he stood transfixed, she exclaimed, in tones that seemed to thrill every fibre of his being. ‘ Murderer ! you have slain my husband. May Heaven’s weightiest vengeance fall upon your guilty head !’ Ted clasped his hands over his eyes, as if to shut out the horror of the scene. Captain Parry approached and whispered in my ear:

‘ The colonel’s wound is fatal—not a spark of hope, the surgeon says. For God’s sake get your frieud away! The affair must be hushed up or it will ruin us all. I shall see you to-night at your lodgings ; there will be no danger till then.’ I led Ted from the spot, and got him to his room, where I remained with him till it was time to keep my appointment with the captain. ‘As I feared,’ the latter said, ■it is all over with my poor friend. He died where lie fell. Luckily, nobody but ourselves, the surgeon, and the sorrow-stricken wife, knows the truth ; and the surgeon, partly for a consideration and partly to screen himself, has agreed to report tne death as the result of an apopletic fit ; so there will be no inquest, and burial can take place without exposure. The sorrow-stricken wife remains in an unconscious state, and can reveal nothing at present. By the time she recovers, steps may be taken to secure her silence. ‘Mr Matthews,’ he added, as if casually, ‘ I believe is a wealthy man.’

I did not deny it. ‘ The Colonel,’ he continued, ‘ leaves his wife destitute, of course it’s not my place to advise, but I venture the suggestion, that your friend might find some alleviation of the remorse he must naturally feel under the circumstances, in doing something to mitigate the destitution to which his act has reduced an estimable lady.’ I could not but assent to the justice of this, and requesting the captain to wait, I hastened to Ted's room and laid the case before him . ‘ I have but a moderate sum with me,’ he answered. But going to his trunk, he took out his portfolio, and filled up a cheque on his Paris banker for an amount which astonished me, generous as I knew him to be. ‘Send her that,’ he said, ‘and when she needs more it shall be forthcoming.’ The captain opened his eyes at the sight ol the cheque, and. I hoped it might prove as consoling to the bereaved lady as it evidently was to him. I felt that every moment we remained was fraught with danger, Ted, too absorbed in his own gloomy thoughts to be otherwise than passive, yielded everything to me, I packed up for both, settled our bill, and, with Ted in company, took the midnight train for Paris. Ted spoke but once during the journey. ‘That woman’s cry,’ he exclaimed, ‘ will never cease ringing in my ears !’ It was noon the next day when the train arrived in Paris ; I called a carriage and hurried Ted in. ‘ I’ll meet you at the Hotel Metropole, I said, whither I directed the driver to proceed. Hurrying into the restaurant, I entered a stall next to one in which I heard voices I had no difficulty in recognising : ‘ He must lose no time in presenting the cheque,’ remarked Colonel De Courcy in a voice wonderfully clear and strong for a man who had just received a bullet in his thorax. Ha ! ha ! ha!’ laughed the captain, ‘ what a quiet conscience the poor dupe might have had, if he had only known it was a target of chain armour he was firing at . ’ * He might jbavs hh me m the head

though,’ suggested the colou»l, probably with a view to claiming an increased portion of the spoil. 1 Not one chance in a million,’ shouted the other, ‘ but come along ! I followed them out, and calling a cab, told the driver to keep close in the rear of that taken by the two friends and stop when they did. When the halt came I looked out cautiously, and saw the colonel and the captain mounting the steps of the Bonk. I followed quietly and entered almost with them. < Stop !’ I shouted to the teller, to whom the cheque was handed, ‘ that is countermanded ; it was procured by a gross fraud, and these men are swindlers.’ The pair turned quickly. ‘ Good morning, gentlemen,’ said I, ‘ glad to see you looking so well—especially you' with a significant look at the colonel. The brace of sharpers did’nt wait to argue the point. At the Hotel I found Ted busy writing a letter to Alice Dawson releasing her from her engagement to accept a hand rendered unworthy of her by being stained with a fellow creature’s blood. The letter, it is needless to say, was never finished.