"Why," said Fred, with a soft smile, "this looks to me like a challenge."
"It is one," replied the Englishman.
"And I am expected to retract the words which I uttered, or be shot?" asked Fred.
"If you are the gentleman who uttered them, I must reply, yes," answered the officer.
"Well, upon my word. I hardly know what I did say," cried Fred. "Do you recollect?" he added, appealing to me.
I shook my head, and remained silent. I was thinking of the danger my friend was in, and wondering how I could get him out of it.
"I think that my friend had the hilt of his sword in his mouth, and your allusion was to the infantile instinct which prompted him to do so," replied the officer, looking red in the face.
"O," laughed Fred, "did the youngster take offence at my words? Tell him that hereafter I will swear that he was brought up on a bottle.'
"This is no apology, sir," cried the officer, inclined to laugh.