"Your wishes, Mistress Jean, are law," said he, "and shall be obeyed. I shall give him till morning to escape in." "Which I promptly accept," said I, "with the hope that I may be able to repay your courtesy if fortune should bring you within our lines some day." And so he bade Mistress Jean farewell, but as he passed me, I whispered to him: "Sir, some words have been said that need an explanation." "It will give me pleasure to offer you one at any place you may appoint." "Then meet me," I said, "two days hence at sunrise on the pike, half-way between the lines." "With swords or pistols?" "Swords." "I will be there;" and he passed on out. When he had gone, I turned to Mistress Jean, who urged me to leave at once. "You must go," said she, "for at any moment you may be tracked and discovered, and then----" "And then--what?" I answered, smiling. "Do you think, Mistress Jean, that I, who travelled for miles through the snow and the storm last night to catch one glimpse of your face, that I, who at last stand in your presence, would give a thought to the noose around my neck?" But she would not let me say her nay, and then her terror grew, until at last she told me that Lord Howe sometimes came home with her father at nine o'clock to talk over the plans of the spring campaign, and that every moment she expected to hear their voices in the hall. "The sight of your face, Mistress Jean, has repaid me for my journey; but if you bid me go, why, then, it is fate, and go I must." Then a thought came to me. "Mistress Jean, tell me this before I leave in the enemy's camp all that is dearest on earth to me: tell me if you love that Highlander, if you care for him." And she, who a moment before was urging me to leave, stood silent, with her face turned away from me, with never a word to say. And I, seeing how matters stood, took my courage in my hands, and, with a low bow, wished her good-bye. CHAPTER XVIII THE CROSSING OF SWORDS Sunrise, two days later, found Mr. Richard Ringgold and myself stamping our feet in the snow on the pike, half-way between the hostile lines. "I suppose they will let us fight here without interruption," said Dick. "No danger from that," I replied. "We will fight in that little hollow, where the outposts cannot see us." "Here they come," said Dick. We saw two officers approaching across the snow from the Highland outpost. They soon came up, and we saluted, while Dick and Captain Forbes, Farquharson's second, soon agreed upon the preliminaries. "Will you lead the way, gentlemen?" said Forbes. Dick and I led them to the little hollow between the hills, where a slight meadow formed a platform, as it were, for us to act our drama upon. Since my first duel with Rodolph on the banks of the Elk I had seen something of war and of battles, and considered myself an old hand in such encounters.