In the third act came the duel scene between Merry and Dunton. In the duel, Frank was to get the worst of it at first, to be wounded by a foul thrust, and then to disarm his antagonist and generously decline to retaliate for his injury.
Just before the duel scene, Frank heard Dunton say to another member of the company:
“Think of being disarmed by such a stiff as that fellow! It will be ridiculous, and the chances are that the audience will throw things at us to-night. Probably he never saw a sword before.”
Merry’s first thought was to show the fellow without delay that he was greatly mistaken. Then came another thought.
“I’ll let him think away till to-night,” decided Frank; “and then I’ll try to give him a surprise.”
So he went on for the duel scene and carried it through in a decidedly awkward manner, so that Havener was obliged to come upon the stage and try to show him how to handle his sword and follow out the idea of the duel properly.
Dunton looked disgusted. As they were going through the duel for the seventh time, he whispered just loud enough for Frank to hear:
“You’re a regular stick! You’ll make a holy show of us both to-night!”
“Oh, I don’t know,” murmured the new actor. “Wait till to-night comes. I may be able to do it better.”
“Bah! you make me sick!” retorted Dunton, through his white teeth.