‘Oh, by all means!’ said I, and mopped my streaming face upon my sleeve, for you may be sure in those days I had no handkerchief.

’If you are sure you can follow me.  That was a very sudden and sharp seizure,’ he said doubtfully.  ’But if you are sure, all right, and here goes.  An affair of honour among you fellows would, naturally, be a little difficult to carry out, perhaps it would be impossible to have it wholly regular.  And yet a duel might be very irregular in form, and, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, loyal enough in effect.  Do you take me?  Now, as a gentleman and a soldier.’

His hand rose again at the words and hovered over me.  I could bear no more, and winced away from him.  ‘No,’ I cried, ’not that.  Do not put your hand upon my shoulder.  I cannot bear it.  It is rheumatism,’ I made haste to add.  ’My shoulder is inflamed and very painful.’

He returned to his chair and deliberately lighted a cigar.

‘I am sorry about your shoulder,’ he said at last.  ’Let me send for the doctor.’

‘Not in the least,’ said I.  ’It is a trifle.  I am quite used to it.  It does not trouble me in the smallest.  At any rate, I don’t believe in doctors.’

‘All right,’ said he, and sat and smoked a good while in a silence which I would have given anything to break.  ‘Well,’ he began presently, ’I believe there is nothing left for me to learn.  I presume I may say that I know all.’

‘About what?’ said I boldly.

‘About Goguelat,’ said he.

‘I beg your pardon.  I cannot conceive,’ said I.

‘Oh,’ says the major, ’the man fell in a duel, and by your hand!  I am not an infant.’

‘By no means,’ said I.  ’But you seem to me to be a good deal of a theorist.’

‘Shall we test it?’ he asked.  ’The doctor is close by.  If there is not an open wound on your shoulder, I am wrong.  If there is—­’ He waved his hand.  ’But I advise you to think twice.  There is a deuce of a nasty drawback to the experiment—­that what might have remained private between us two becomes public property.’

‘Oh, well!’ said I, with a laugh, ’anything rather than a doctor!  I cannot bear the breed.’

His last words had a good deal relieved me, but I was still far from comfortable.

Major Chevenix smoked awhile, looking now at his cigar ash, now at me.  ‘I’m a soldier myself,’ he says presently, ’and I’ve been out in my time and hit my man.  I don’t want to run any one into a corner for an affair that was at all necessary or correct.  At the same time, I want to know that much, and I’ll take your word of honour for it.  Otherwise, I shall be very sorry, but the doctor must be called in.’

‘I neither admit anything nor deny anything,’ I returned.  ’But if this form of words will suffice you, here is what I say:  I give you my parole, as a gentleman and a soldier, there has nothing taken place amongst us prisoners that was not honourable as the day.’