“Breakfast? No, thank you, not even if it was on the table; for there, I think our boat is ready now,” answered the General. And he went to the side of the yacht, and followed by Dick and the two detectives, descended into the boat. They were rapidly rowed to the shore. There were no cabs in sight. “What is to be done now?” inquired the General. “There is nothing for it, but to walk up into the town, and over it, if necessary,” answered Dick. “Luckily for us all, that may be done without much bodily fatigue. It is not a very large place,” remarked the General. “If you please, gentlemen, I think we had better look for our men at the hotels. It is still so early that they can scarcely have started on their dueling adventure,” suggested one of the detectives. “Lead the way, then. You know the town, I think you told me,” said the General. “Oh, yes, sir,” answered the detective, bending his steps towards the principal hotel. While they were yet at some distance from the house, they saw a carriage drive off from before it. Slight as the circumstance was in itself, when considered in relation to the hour and other circumstances, it seemed very significant. So they hurried on. Before they reached the house however, they saw another carriage draw up before the entrance, and a party come out and enter it; and then they saw the carriage drive off, but not in the same direction taken by the first. “There are our duelists!” exclaimed the detective in triumph, “one party is in the first carriage, and the other in the second.” “But they took opposite directions,” gasped the General, out of breath with his rapid walk. “That was to mislead people. They have taken opposite, but each will make a half circle and meet on the appointed ground unless we stop them,” said Willet, striding onwards at a rate that made it difficult for his companions to keep up with him. “I do not see how we are to stop it now,” groaned the General. “We must take a cab from the hotel, and make what inquiries as to the route taken by the others that we have time for.” While talking they had hurried on with all their might, and now they were at the hotel. “Is Prince Ernest of Hohenlinden stopping here?” inquired the General, stepping at once up to the office. “There is a foreigner of rank who arrived here late last night by the Southampton steamer.” “Where is he now?” “Gone out for a morning ride by the sea, I think.” “Ah! you have other travelers here who arrived by the Southampton boat?” “Yes; an American gentleman, I think, a scientific man, who has gone out with his servant to hunt for minerals in the Noirmont Heights.” “Ah! a scientific man in search of minerals!” grunted the General. “By the way, there were two of them, they——” “Oh, two of them, were they! Master and pupil, very likely; or principal and second.” “They took with them a servant carrying a box of tools.”