Mr. Long did his best to reassure him on this point,—he had already stayed for an hour, and had drunk a bottle and a half of claret and half a tumbler of brandy “to steady the wine,” he declared; and indeed it seemed that the claret was a little shaky.
When they were alone Dick said:
“I was afraid, sir, that letter would come to you.”
He shook his head with the air of a man who has had a varied experience of men and their ways.
“I frankly confess that I was surprised to receive it,” said Mr. Long. “But I had made my calculations without allowing for such a possibility as this Major O’Teague. Mathews had some remnant of discretion, and that is why three days have passed before I receive his challenge.”
“You think that Mathews would not have sent it of his own accord?” said Dick.
“I am convinced of it,” replied Mr. Long. “He knows something of what I know about him, and he has given me the best evidence in the world of his desire to get rid of me once and for all. But he would never have sent me this challenge had it not been that that fire-eating Irish adventurer got hold of him and talked him into a fighting mood. What chance would a weak fool such as Mathews have against so belligerent a personality as O’Teague? Heavens, sir, give the man an hour with the most timorous of human beings, and I will guarantee that he will transform him into a veritable swashbuckler. Mathews is a fool, and he is probably aware of it by now—assuming that an hour and a half has elapsed since O’Teague left him.”
“If he had not challenged you, he need never have shown his face in Bath again,” said Dick.
“Oh, my dear Dick, you have not seen so much of Bath as I have,” said Mr. Long. “Bath will stand a great deal. Has it not stood Mathews for several years?”
Dick made no reply; he was walking to and fro in the room in considerable agitation. At last he stood before Mr. Long.