"I don't see why you have these old duffers come up here and make trouble," she said. "Captain Barron is bad enough by himself, but when that horrid old Major Bullbeggor and he get together, they just sit around to drink and make trouble. It's only an hour's ride to his place and I don't see why Sam can't help Snake take him home." "My dear sister," I said, "you know the traditions of Judkins' Hall. The Major shall, therefore, always be a welcome visitor. He is a good soldier, and the time will come--if it is not here already--when Virginia will need just such men. We cannot put up with Dunmore's violence any longer, and if Berk Harrison can't understand this the sooner we see less of him, the better it will be for us all." "Good soldier! Huh!" she cried, with a pretty toss of her head. "If Virginia depends on such men for soldiers, my lord Dunmore will soon settle the disturbance. Good soldier, indeed! Why it was only last week he and Captain Barron were sitting up drinking and telling their abominable adventures, and they were anything but a soldier-like kind. Poor Mrs. Bullbeggor overheard them and has threatened to get a divorce. Snake said she had hysterics, and kept screaming that her husband was fit for nothing but paying bills. Good soldier, indeed!" And Mary went into the house with an air of indignation that would have done credit to a queen--or a Judkins. I went over to Harrison's, but on the way I couldn't help wondering if this power to pay bills, which Mary held in such high disdain in the Major, was not just a little attractive in young Harrison. Women have strange methods of reasoning out the proper way to look at things. Harrison declined to see me, at first, but after I had sat out two cigars on his verandah, he appeared. He refused to listen to any peaceful overtures that I advanced, and I wasted all the afternoon and evening trying to settle matters without a meeting. His friend Phripps dined with him and afterwards left with a formal challenge to the Major, requesting a meeting at sunrise the next morning. I left Harrison at about nine in the evening, after an uncomfortable meal, with the feeling that trouble was in store for the Major. On reaching the Hall, I found dinner over and the Major and Barron in bed. The Major had requested Barron to act for him and had accepted the challenge. They had settled upon a spot down on the river shore, and all who know the James will remember how flat and smooth the shore is at this bend. The fact that there was to be a meeting had been kept secret from my mother and sister, for even Mary did not think the last words she had overheard meant anything dangerous, but, in spite of this, it was easy to see that the house servants suspected something was wrong.