‘A trifle ye call it?’ roared Mac. ‘An’ if there’s a fool hereabouts, it isn’t Terence MacWhirter; but ye needn’t travel very far to find him.’
The doctor whispered in Goodhew’s ear. The latter nodded and smiled, and said: ‘All right, Mac. You challenge me to a duel. I accept it. Pistols?’
‘Of coorse,’ replied Mac. ‘Ye didn’t think oi mane fishing-rods? Insulting a MacWhirter’s no trifle, oi tell ye.’
So they separated.
It may be imagined that the chief topic on board during the interval between Singapore and Hong-kong was the approaching duel. Mac had given out more than once that he was no novice; and he certainly had shown himself a dead-shot with a rook-rifle at bottles or pieces of wood; but whether, considering the extreme excitability of his nature, he would preserve his calmness on the field of battle sufficiently to make any use of his accomplishment, we were inclined to doubt. Goodhew had never fired a pistol in his life; but there was an easy, calm confidence about him that foretold no want of nerve on his part.
‘Pat,’ said the doctor, on the evening before our arrival at Hong-kong, ‘haven’t you a qualm of conscience about going to shoot this poor fellow?’
‘Faith, doctor,’ replied Mac, ‘the odds are even. If he wins the toss, he shoots me.’
‘You’re not afraid of the consequences of manslaughter?’ continued the doctor. ‘I don’t mean the judicial consequences, but the remorse, the fear of being haunted’——
‘Doctor,’ said Mac, ‘oi took ye for the only sensible man on the ship, and ye go and talk blarney about haunting and all that. Oi tell ye, doctor, oi’m not a believer in spirits; and if oi kill Goodhew, and his ghost makes a pother about me afterwards, oi’ll have to settle him as well. Look ye, doctor, ye and the whole lot of ’em want to get me off this duel; but oi’ve been insulted; and if oi put up with it, oi’ll not be worthy of the name of MacWhirter at all at all.’
The next evening we steamed into Hong-kong harbour. Mrs Fuller was on deck, admiring the effects of the great mountain shadows upon the moonlit water, and of the innumerable twinkling lights from the shore, which mount up and up until they seem to mingle with the stars.