"Back to back, and to turn at the signal of a pistol shot."
"Then he is all right, Captain. You need not worry about him. He is as quick as lightning, and he will get first shot, never fear, and more than that, I wouldn't mind betting that he carries off one of the fellow's fingers."
"Why, how do you know that?" Captain Lister asked in surprise. "He can't have been here since I left him."
"No, sir, he has not been here; but he told me that if he ever got into a duel he would aim at his opponent's hand, and he has been practising specially for that. He had a target made on purpose, but that did not please him, and we rigged out an arm holding a pistol and fixed it to the target just in the position it would be if the painted figure were firing at him. We had to have a rough sort of hand made of iron, for it would have cost a fortune if had been made of anything else. Sometimes he would have it painted white, sometimes gray, sometimes black, either of which it might be, if a man wore gloves, but it did not make any difference to him; and I have seen him hit it twenty times following, over and over again."
All this had been very reassuring to Captain Lister, and if it had not been for Marshall's reputation he would have gone to the place of meeting feeling confident that all would go well, but the fact that it was Frank's first duel, while Marshall had been in some eight or ten affairs, prevented his feeling otherwise than nervous as to the result. They were first upon the ground; the major and doctor arriving two minutes later.
"You may as well tell the major, Captain Lister, that he need not be alarmed. He is looking terribly anxious, and so is the doctor."
Captain Lister nodded, and went up to them as they dismounted from the gig. "I fancy that it is going to be all right, doctor," he said, "Wyatt tells me so himself, and what he says is confirmed by Woodall, the gunsmith. It seems the lad is an extraordinarily good shot. I told you last night that he had been practising a good deal, but I did not like to raise your hopes too high until I had seen Woodall. I will bet you a guinea that Wyatt comes out of it all right."
"I could not bet on it, Lister, though I would pay the guinea with greater pleasure than I ever felt at winning one; but I hear that Marshall is a very quick shot."
"So is Wyatt, major, and as the young 'un has been practising regularly, I fancy he will be as quick or quicker than the other."
"Well, I hope to heaven that it may turn out so. Nothing would please me more than that Wyatt should put a ball into the fellow's head. Men like him are a curse to the army."