Pettus was waiting for me when I kicked open the door of the low-roofed shelter and entered, and it was my good genius that prompted me to sit by the fire and ask for a pipe and a crumbling of Jack’s tobacco, and otherwise to mask the fierce desire I had to put my fate immediately to the touch. For my Jack was as quick-witted as a woman, and I remembered in good time that I had to deceive him. So my first word was not of Seytoun, or of the quarrel, but of Colonel Alexander Hamilton and the despatches I had been supposed to bring from my colonel. “Curious how a rumor breeds out of nothing,” I commented, when we were comfortably befogged in the tobacco smoke. “Melton seemed to be sure that I must be the bearer of despatches; and Colonel Hamilton accused me of having ridden over from Nyack on a borrowed horse.” “The which you did, despatches or no despatches,” laughed Pettus. “But how did you get on with Mr. Hamilton?” “As one gentleman should when he meets another for a joint shin-toasting before a blazing fire of logs. We chatted amicably, after Mr. Hamilton learned that I brought no word from Colonel Baylor; and when I could break off decently I came away.” After this silence came and dwelt with us for a while, and when the fierce desire could be no longer suppressed I said, as indifferently as I could: “You have news for me, Jack?” “If you call that news which we were both expecting--yes. Lieutenant Cardrigg has been here, in Captain Seytoun’s behalf.” My gasp of disappointment slipped out--or in--before I could prevent it, and it did not go unremarked by Pettus. “What’s that, Dick? You sigh like the furnace of affliction itself. Twice, already, you have changed your mind about this little riffle with Seytoun. It is far too late to change it again. I warn you as a friend.” “Truly, it is indeed far too late,” I echoed, agreeing parrot-wise. Then: “You arranged the business as we talked?----to-morrow morning, in the grass cove at the mouth of the creek?” “How else would I arrange it?” said Pettus querulously. “You were as precise in your instructions as any girl prinking herself for a rout.” “It is well to be precise,” I offered half absently. The worst had befallen now, and my brain was busy with the shameful consequences which must ensue. “Cardrigg haggled a little over the trooper’s swords,” Pettus went on reflectively, after a moment. “He is a chip of the same upstart block out of which our red-faced captain was hewn. He said you might have chosen rapiers, if only out of consideration for the captain’s standing; meaning to imply thereby that the captain, at least, was a gentleman, and should be allowed to fight with a gentleman’s weapon.” “You yielded him the point?” I questioned, trying to show an interest which I could not feel. “Not I, damn him. I gave him to understand flatly that we stood upon our rights, and that the trooper’s sword was good enough for his principal--or for him and me, if it came to that.”