"Yes."
"That's a strange idea. How are we to do it?"
"Get down off your horse."
"And after that?"
"Pick up a handful of stones out of the road."
"Stones! So it is with stones that we are going to fight. It reminds me of the famous battle between David and Goliath."
"I said that you were to pick up a handful of stones out of the road. The darkness will prevent you from counting the stones, and you will hold them in your closed hand. The one who guesses the number correctly is to have the gun. He will place it against the other's breast and fire. You see that no daylight is needed for that, M. de Pont Brillant."
Frederick's manner was so resolute and his voice so incisive that the young marquis, strange as the whole affair seemed to be, decided that the speaker was really in earnest; then, suddenly remembering a conversation that had taken place in his grandmother's drawing-room, he burst into a hearty laugh and exclaimed:
"This is a good joke, upon my word. I understand everything now."
"Explain, M. de Pont Brillant."