“You are all witnesses, gentlemen,” I said to the men near me, “that from the first this quarrel has been forced upon me. Lieutenant Spernow, for the present you will act for me.”
“I will have your life for this!” cried the Duke, mad with rage.
I made no reply. There was nothing more to be gained by any further taunts.
“I am sorry this has happened here and to-night,” I said to my host. “But you must have seen it was none of my seeking. You will excuse me if I go.”
I left, and walked home with a feeling of rare pleasure at the thought of the coming fight. If I did not punish him for his foul insult, then surely was I what he had said—a coward.
CHAPTER XVII
A DASTARDLY SCHEME
As soon as I reached home I despatched a servant in hot haste for Zoiloff, and when he arrived I told him what had happened.
“He forced the quarrel on you?” he asked.
“Certainly. I was willing enough, Heaven knows; but there was not a man in the room who would not have to say that I bore his insults till I must have seemed all but a coward. But I wanted to make this thing a life and death affair. And it is that.”
“You will kill him?” he asked, his dark eyes glowing.