Bob's face was red as that of a turkey-cock the moment before, but at these words the anger seemed to pass away like a cloud from before the sun, and he burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "Oh!" he said, "that's what you mean is it? Swords, or pistols, and seconds, early in the morning, with a doctor on the ground. Oh, I say, Tom Long, this is too delicious." "Sir!" exclaimed Tom Long. "I say it's too delicious. Duelling be hanged; it's fools' work; and I'm not quite fool enough to let a friend make a hole, or try to make a hole, in my precious carcase." "Sir, none but a coward would speak as you are speaking," cried Tom Long, indignantly. "Oh, wouldn't he?" said Bob. "Well, then, I suppose I'm a coward, for hang me if we don't get running risks enough from these coffee-coloured fellows, without trying it on among ourselves." "I thought you more of a gentleman," said Tom Long, contemptuously. "Oh, you did, did you?" said Bob; "and I'm a coward, am I? Well, look here, my lad, it's too hot now, but if you like to come on board to-night, or to-morrow morning, and take off your jacket like a man, I'll have it out with you in the gun-room, and old Dick to see fair, and you can bring Private Gray or Sergeant Lund." "What do you mean?" said Tom Long, haughtily; "swords or pistols, sir?" "Do I mean swords or pistols, sir?" said Bob, imitating the other's pompous way; "no, sir, I don't mean either. I reserve those lethal weapons, sir, for Her Majesty's enemies, sir, as an officer and a gentleman should; and when I fall out with a friend, I punch his head with my fist--like a man." "Like a man!" said Tom Long, in tones of disgust; "like a schoolboy or a blackguard." "No, sir," said Bob, still mimicking his companion; "the schoolboy or man who uses his fists is to my mind not half such a blackguard as the _gentleman_ who tries to kill a fellow in cold blood, and calls it on account of his honour." "The old contemptible argument," said Tom Long, sneering. "No one but a coward would take refuge behind such excuses." "Then I'm a coward!" said Bob, cocking his heels up on a chair, and sticking his hands in his pockets. "All right: I'm a coward; and as we used to say at school, `give me the coward's blow,' and if you do, Tom Long, you see if I don't punch your head." Tom Long rose, and came at him menacingly, and Bob laughed in his face. "I say, Long, old man," he said, "what a jolly pair of fools we are to quarrel about nothing at all." "I never want to quarrel," said Tom Long, stiffly, for the other's mirth took him aback, "but when a fellow behaves like a coward--" "In the face of the enemy," interposed Bob, "kick him out of the service, military or naval, eh? Look here, Tommy." "For goodness' sake, sir, don't call me by that objectionably childish name," cried the ensign. "How should you like to be called Bobby?"