"This, then, is your revenge?" he continued, in a contemptuous tone. "For twenty years you have stayed your hand. While I was great and powerful, you did not venture to strike; but a man nearing his fall is a safer, an easier target. Winterfeld, at least, was an honourable foe. He attacked me, certainly, but it was in open combat; he met me face to face. You prefer to shoot from under ambush, calling strangers to help you in the work. You had no hesitation in supplying the police and the newspapers with weapons against me, but when it comes to facing me and the arm which shall avenge the dishonour done me, your courage fails you. Verily, Rudolph, I should not have believed you capable of such mean and pitiful conduct!"
"Enough!" Brunnow interposed, in a half-stifled voice. "Not a word more--I accept your challenge." His breast heaved with a quick convulsive movement. He had grown deadly pale, and his whole frame shook with emotion. He leaned for support against the back of the chair nearest him. Something like compassion gleamed in the Baron's eye, pity for the man he had wrought up to such extreme agitation, before whom he had placed so terrible an alternative; but there was no trace of any such weakness in his voice, as he replied:
"Good. I will request Colonel Wilten, the commandant of the garrison here, to act as my second. He will arrange the necessary preliminaries with any gentleman you may name as yours."
Brunnow merely bowed his head in assent. The Baron took his hat from the table, and then went up to the Doctor again.
"One thing more, Rudolph," he said, slowly. "This is to me a matter of deadly earnest. As you will feel, seeing the injury you have done me, this duel must be to the death between us. I shall expect that it be not turned into a comedy. It might seem good to you to fire in the air. Do not compel me to repeat before our seconds that which I have said to you here. I give you my word I shall take that course, should your aim be purposely misdirected."
Brunnow drew himself up, and his eyes blazed with fierce, passionate hatred.
"Do not fear," he said. "The words you have spoken to-day have been as the death-knell to our past. Any lingering reminiscences of youth are buried from henceforth. You are right. A duel between us two must be to the death. I, too, know how to avenge an imputation on my honour."
"To-morrow, then, we meet. I will go now and seek the Colonel."
He drew back the bolt from the door, and left the room, drawing a deep, deep breath, as though a load had fallen from him. Then, with a rapid, steady step, he walked away in the direction of Colonel Wilten's house.