The admiral gave a look of some amazement at Mr. Chillingworth, and then he said, muttering to himself,—
"If Jack Pringle should have betrayed me—but, no; he could not do that, he is too true. I'm sure of Jack; and how did that son of a gallipot hint about the odd fish I sent Jack to?"
Filled with a dubious kind of belief which he had about something he had heard of Jack Pringle, he entered the room, where he met Marchdale, Jack Pringle, and Henry Bannerworth. Immediately afterwards, Mr. Chillingworth entered the apartment.
"I have," said he, "been to Sir Francis Varney, and there had an interview with him, and with Mr. Pringle; when I found we were both intent upon the same object, namely, an encounter with the knight by our principals."
"Eh?" said the admiral.
"What!" exclaimed Henry; "had he challenged you, admiral?"
"Challenged me!" exclaimed Admiral Bell, with a round oath. "I—however—since it comes to this, I must admit I challenged him."
"That's what I did," said Henry Bannerworth, after a moment's thought; "and I perceive we have both fallen into the same line of conduct."
"That is the fact," said Mr. Chillingworth. "Both Mr. Pringle and I went there to settle the preliminaries, and we found an insurmountable bar to any meeting taking place at all."
"He wouldn't fight, then?" exclaimed Henry. "I see it all now."