He caught Darleton in the shoulder and inflicted a superficial but somewhat painful wound.
Exclamations came from the masked witnesses.
Infuriated by his poor success and the wound, Darleton threw caution to the winds and sailed into Merry like a tornado.
“It’s your life or mine!” he panted, as he made a vicious thrust at Frank’s heart.
The thrust was turned.
Then a cry of horror broke from the spectators, for Frank seemed to have run his antagonist clean through the body.
Darleton fell. One of the masked men, who seemed to be a surgeon, knelt at once to examine the wound.
“I’m sorry,” said Frank grimly; “but I call on you all to bear witness that he forced me to it. As he said, it was his life or mine.”
The following day Frank visited Darleton in the hospital whither the unfortunate fellow had been taken. The wounded man’s injury had been pronounced very serious, but not necessarily fatal. The course of the steel had been changed by a rib, and only Darleton’s right side had been pierced.