“All's ready, Con, my hearty,” whispered Seth, leaning over my shoulder; “here's the tool.”
If I had followed the instinct then strongest, I should have treated my “friend” Seth to the first of my maiden sword. But for him—But it was too late for regrets; and already the group had retired, leaving the villano standing in a position of formidable defence alone in the circle.
I can remember that I walked calmly and slowly forward to the spot assigned me. I can remember the word being given to draw swords, and I even yet can see the flashing steel as it glistened, and hear the clang of the scabbards as we flung them from us; but of the encounter itself I have only the vaguest impression. Cuts, thrusts, parries, advances and retirings, feints and guards, are all blended up with the exclamations of the bystanders as, in praise or censure, they followed the encounter. At last, without knowing why, after a warm rally, my antagonist uttered a faint cry, and tottering a few paces back, let fall his sword, and sank heavily to the earth. I sprang forward in dread anxiety; but two of the others held me back while they cried out, “Basta—Basta, Señhor!” I tried to force my way past them, but they held me fast; and all that I could see was one of the group take up the villano's arm and let it go again, when it fell heavily to the ground with a dull bang I shall never forget! They then threw his cloak over him, and I saw him no more.
“What are ye waitin' for, lad?” whispered Seth. “You don't want to attend his funeral, I reckon?”
“Is he—is he———?” I could n't get the word out for worlds.
“By course he is; and so will you be, if ye don't make a bolt of it.”
I have some recollection of an angry altercation between Seth and myself,—I refusing, and he insisting on my instant flight; but it ended somehow in my finding myself galloping along the Guajuaqualla road at a furious pace, and, to my extreme surprise, feeling now as eager about my safety as before I had been indifferent to it.
I became conscious of this from the sense of uneasiness I experienced as each horseman neared me, and the danger of pursuit aroused in me the instinct of self-preservation.