Their hats, coats, waistcoats and neckwear were soon removed and thrown outside the door, in the passage. The man with the candle now nodded, and the fourth man--he who had urged Grossmith to leave the wagon--produced from the pocket of his overcoat two long, murderous-looking bowie-knives, which he drew now from their leather scabbards.
'They are exactly alike,' he said, presenting one to each of the two principals--for by this time the dullest observer would have understood the nature of this meeting. It was to be a duel to the death.
Each combatant took a knife, examined it criti-cally near the candle and tested the strength of blade and handle across his lifted knee. Their per-sons were then searched in turn, each by the second of the other.
'If it is agreeable to you, Mr. Grossmith,' said the man holding the light,' you will place yourself in that corner.'
He indicated the angle of the room farthest from the door, whither Grossmith retired, his second part-ing from him with a grasp of the hand which had nothing of cordiality in it. In the angle nearest the door Mr. Rosser stationed himself, and after a whispered consultation his second left him, joining the other near the door. At that moment the candle was suddenly extinguished, leaving all in profound darkness. This may have been done by the draught from the opened door; whatever the cause, the effect was startling.
'Gentlemen,' said a voice which sounded strangely unfamiliar in the altered condition affecting the relations of the senses--'gentlemen, you will not move until you hear the closing of the outer door.'
A sound of trampling ensued, then the closing of the inner door; and finally the outer one closed with a concussion which shook the entire building.
A few minutes afterward a belated farmer's boy met a light wagon which was being driven furiously toward the town of Marshall. He declared that be-hind the two figures on the front seat stood a third, with its hands upon the bowed shoulders of the others, who appeared to struggle vainly to free themselves from its grasp. This figure, unlike the others, was clad in white, and had undoubtedly boarded the wagon as it passed the haunted house.
As the lad could boast a considerable former expe-rience with the supernatural thereabouts his word had the weight justly due to the testimony of an expert. The story (in connection with the next day's events) eventually appeared in the Advance, with some slight literary embellishments and a concluding intimation that the gentlemen referred to would be allowed the use of the paper's columns for their version of the night's adventure. But the privilege remained without a claimant.
2
The events that led up to this 'duel in the dark'
were simple enough. One evening three young men of the town of Marshall were sitting in a quiet corner of the porch of the village hotel, smoking and dis-cussing such matters as three educated young men of a Southern village would naturally find interesting.
Their names were King, Sancher and Rosser. At a little distance, within easy hearing, but taking no part in the conversation, sat a fourth. He was a stranger to the others. They merely knew that on his arrival by the stage-coach that afternoon he had written in the hotel register the name Robert Grossmith. He had not been observed to speak to anyone except the hotel clerk. He seemed, indeed, singularly fond of his own company--or, as the personnel of the Advance expressed it, 'grossly ad-dicted to evil associations.' But then it should be said in justice to the stranger that the personnel was himself of a too convivial disposition fairly to judge one differently gifted, and had, moreover, experienced a slight rebuff in an effort at an 'interview.'
'I hate any kind of deformity in a woman,' said King, 'whether natural or--acquired. I have a theory that any physical defect has its correlative mental and moral defect.'
'I infer, then,' said Rosser gravely, 'that a lady lacking the moral advantage of a nose would find the struggle to become Mrs. King an arduous enterprise.'
'Of course you may put it that way,' was the re-ply; 'but, seriously, I once threw over a most charming girl on learning quite accidentally that she had suffered amputation of a toe. My conduct was brutal if you like, but if I had married that girl I should have been miserable for life and should have made her so.'
'Whereas,' said Sancher, with a light laugh, 'by marrying a gentleman of more liberal views she escaped with a parted throat.'
'Ah, you know to whom I refer. Yes, she married Manton, but I don't know about his liberality; I'm not sure but he cut her throat because he discovered that she lacked that excellent thing in woman, the middle toe of the right foot.'
'Look at that chap!' said Rosser in a low voice, his eyes fixed upon the stranger.
'That chap' was obviously listening intently to the conversation.
'Damn his impudence!' muttered King--' what ought we to do?'
'That's an easy one,' Rosser replied, rising. 'Sir,'
he continued, addressing the stranger, 'I think it would be better if you would remove your chair to the other end of the veranda. The presence of gentle-men is evidently an unfamiliar situation to you.'
The man sprang to his feet and strode forward with clenched hands, his face white with rage. All were now standing. Sancher stepped between the belligerents.
'You are hasty and unjust,' he said to Rosser;'this gentleman has done nothing to deserve such language.'
But Rosser would not withdraw a word. By the custom of the country and the time there could be but one outcome to the quarrel.
'I demand the satisfaction due to a gentleman,'
said the stranger, who had become more calm. 'Ihave not an acquaintance in this region. Perhaps you, sir,' bowing to Sancher, 'will be kind enough to represent me in this matter.'
