"But his friend, the man who was with him, whispered to me: 'Go to Monsieur Vermoncey at once; there's to be a duel.'" "A duel! O my God!" Monsieur Vermoncey rose, took the letter from Paul's hand, and hastily ran his eyes over it. "The unhappy boy!" he cried; "he says good-bye to me, asks me to forgive him for fighting. Ah! he must have determined to kill me too. But you say it was only a moment ago that Albert gave you this letter?" "Yes, monsieur--out on the boulevard." "Ah! then he shall not fight; I will stop this duel. O my God! my son, the last of my children! to lose him as well would be too horrible!" Monsieur Vermoncey put on his hat and hastened downstairs, followed by Paul. When they were in the street, he looked anxiously at the messenger, and said: "You know where this duel is to take place, do you not?" "No, monsieur; they did not tell me that." "What! his friend did not tell you?" "No, I suppose he didn't think of it; and it didn't occur to me to ask him." "What a misfortune! Where are we to go, then? where shall we find them?" "One moment, monsieur; they were in a cab in front of the Café de Paris; they have not gone to the Bois de Boulogne, for the cab drove away rapidly in the direction of Porte Saint-Denis." "Then they must be at Vincennes; yes, that must be the place. We will go there. Isn't that a cab yonder? just call it." "Yes, monsieur." Paul ran to call the cab; Monsieur Vermoncey stepped in, and said to the messenger: "Come with me, my friend; you must help me in my search." "Gladly, monsieur; but I will get up behind." "No, no, come in here, with me; you understand my suffering, I can see that. You will help me to find my son, to prevent a ghastly calamity. Come quickly!" Paul stepped into the cab and seated himself beside Monsieur Vermoncey, who said to the driver: "Twenty francs, forty francs, as much money as you want, if we are at the Forest of Vincennes in half an hour!" The driver urged his horses to a gallop. XXII THE DUEL AND ITS RESULTS.--A TOKEN OF VICTORY.--TOBIE'S REWARD Albert and Tobie arrived at Porte Saint-Mandé as the clock struck ten. They alighted from their cab, and saw a carriage a few yards away. "The count is ahead of me," said Albert; "but it's all right; we are in time. Yes, I see two gentlemen walking along the avenue yonder. Those are our adversaries. Come, Tobie, forward!" "What do you say? _our_ adversaries!" cried Pigeonnier, walking as if he had on three pairs of trousers; "I have no adversaries; I didn't come here to fight!" "Yes, yes, that's all right, don't be alarmed. In old times, the seconds used to fight; and if you want to follow the example of the _raffinés_,--under Louis XIII, for instance, they sometimes fought six against six; those were pleasure parties, on my word!" "A delicious kind of pleasure! I have no admiration for the manners of those days."