‘Not a moment need be lost so far as I am concerned,’ he answered, gazing at me steadfastly with eyes that looked like porcelain with the singular glaze that seemed to have come suddenly upon them.
‘My cousin requests me to state,’ I continued, ‘that you will consider him as acting without a second equally with yourself. My unhappy office will consist simply in giving the signal to fire. I would to God that my influence had been powerful enough with him to arrest his resolution at this point——’
‘It could not have prevailed with me,’ he exclaimed. ‘The madman’s blow was needless. On what part of the yacht do we fight?’
‘On the quarterdeck,’ I answered.
‘Measured by you?’
I bowed.
‘As there are no seconds,’ he said, ‘I presume we load for ourselves?’
‘That is Sir Wilfrid Monson’s suggestion,’ I answered.
‘Have you the pistols, sir?’