‘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?’ ‘I will fetch them.’ I went at once to Wilfrid’s berth and knocked, and walked in without waiting for him to tell me to enter. He was writing in his diary; he instantly threw down his pen and jumped from his chair. ‘Is all ready, Charles?’ he asked. ‘Your pistols are identical, I believe?’ said I. ‘Exactly alike,’ he answered. ‘Then Colonel Hope-Kennedy’s choice,’ said I, ‘cannot furnish him with any advantage over you, by his choosing, I mean, with a soldier’s experience the preciser weapon?’ ‘There is not an atom of difference between them,’ he exclaimed. ‘Yonder’s the case, Charles. Take it, and let the scoundrel choose for himself.’ He could not have spoken more coolly had he been giving me the most commonplace instructions. I remember wondering whilst I looked at him and listened to him whether he actually realised his own intention; yet I should have known better than this if only for the meaning his face conveyed, and for a note in his voice that made every accent hard and steady. He said, ‘When you are ready ring the hand-bell on the table; I will then join you.’ ‘But you will charge your own pistol,’ said I, ‘so I must return with the weapon after the Colonel has made his choice.’ ‘No,’ he exclaimed; ‘carry the case on deck and load for me.’ ‘Very well,’ said I, wearily and sick at heart, and devoutly wishing that some heavy black squall would come thundering down on the yacht as the precursor of a gale of wind and delay this wretched business, for the present anyway. I took the pistol-case, and returned it to Colonel Hope-Kennedy. He slightly glanced at the fire-arms, and said with a faint smile, ‘They are an elegant brace of weapons. Either will do for me.’ ‘Will you load on deck or here, sir?’ said I. ‘Here, if you please.’