“Now to business,” the lieutenant said.  “You are the challenged party, and have the right to choose weapons.  I have a beautiful pair of pistols at the barracks, which I wish you would make choice of.  You will fall in love with them at the first sight.”

“Very probable,” I replied, coolly; “but if pistols are to settle the quarrel, have a pair of Colt’s revolvers which I know will command your admiration.  Here are the two instruments,” and, as I spoke, I laid them on the table.

“A murderous looking weapon, and not suited for the use of gentlemen at ten paces,” Merriam said, handling the revolvers with great respect.

“So I thought,” I replied composedly, “and have resolved to have nothing to do with pistols of any kind.  They are an unsatisfactory weapon, and a man has got to be a good shot to put a ball just where he pleases at ten paces.”

“Ah, then you have concluded to try the sword?  A more gentlemanly weapon it would be hard to find.  Let swords decide it, then.”

I saw a glow of satisfaction upon the face of the lieutenant, and I knew that his principal was an adept in the use of the sword as well as though he had told me in so many words.

“I cannot make choice of the sword,” I replied, “because my friend does not understand its use, and therefore the advantage would be all on your side.”

“Then pray name what weapon you will fight with,” Merriam said, impatiently.

“This is the weapon we will use,” I replied, producing, to the astonishment of the officer, my three foot six inch barrel rifle, which, during our absence the day before, Smith had cleaned and polished up thoroughly.

“What is that?” he asked, astonished.

“This,” I replied, “is an American rifle, and a very good one it is, I assure you.”

“But we cannot fight with only one, and unless another is produced precisely like it, some other weapon will have to be resorted to,” cried the officer, with a slight expression of joy.

“I am aware of that,” I replied coolly, and to his astonishment I presented him with a fac-simile of the first.

“These rifles,” I remarked, “were both made by the same person, and he was instructed to manufacture them without a shade of difference in regard to size or weight.  The only method we have of telling them apart is to consult the stocks, where our names are engraved.  Examine them attentively, and then select whichever you please.  One is as good as the other, and each carries well.”

The Englishman stared at the rifles with a countenance blank with dismay.  They were weapons which he was entirely unacquainted with, and he felt that the safety of his principal demanded a remonstrance against their use.

“I object to the use of rifles,” he said, at length, firmly and decidedly.  “My friend is entirely unacquainted with these kind of weapons, and it would be madness on his part to go to the field with such odds against him.”