"MY DEAR SIR,--It is now more than three weeks that you played upon me a trick most treacherous. What it was I will not relate, for it would be needless. This I do assert, and more, that when you tell me you do not know what I mean, as you told me yesterday, you say not the truth. When I demand that you give to me the satisfaction that a gentleman should offer to another under such circumstances, I feel that I am treating you with a courtesy which you do not deserve. I think a whipping would suit better your contemptibility. Still, nevertheless, I conceal my pride, and I beg that you will meet me at whatever place you may appoint, and that you will fight with me with any weapon that you may choose. "My unfriended condition in this country makes it not possible that I should be accompanied by a person who shall be suitable to be my second. But I entreat that my poverty in this respect will not deter you from bringing a friend with you. "I am, sir, "Yours with faithfulness, "FRIEDRICH JOHANN LUDWIG V. RITTENHEIM." Bob whistled,--a long sibilation of amazement,--and then laughed and laughed again. "What have you-all been doing to the old fellow?" "Ah haven't any idea." "He says you talked it over yesterday." "You hardly could say we discussed it," said the Doctor, dryly. "He insisted that Ah knew the drift o' his remarks, which Ah didn't, and rung in something about a man on a white horse." "Who was he?" "Blamed if Ah know. Ah begin to think, like Bud, the man's sick. He certainly was angry over something, and he used pretty strong language." "Swearing?" "No. Told me Ah lied." Bob whistled again. "That warmed you under the collar, I suspect?" "It did wilt mah linen a trifle. However, Ah took it that, being a foreigner, he didn't know just how strong a word he was employing, so Ah drove off and left him." "I reckon from this," holding up the letter, "he did know, and meant just what he said. It looks as if you'd been too lenient. You ought to have given him a biff or two on the spot." "Maybe Ah had oughter." Morgan pulled his beard thoughtfully. Bob read the letter through once more. "Quaint English, isn't it? The idea of a regular challenge gets me. I don't know when I've come across anything funnier." "The notion ain't so novel to me, but duels are scarce nowadays. The State ain't so overly encouraging to them. Hand me down those Statutes and let me see exactly how they fix us." Bob took the book from the shelf against the wall, and the Doctor turned over the pages.