“That I certainly shall not do,” he answered; and drawing the card from his pocket, he tore it into fragments, unread. Captain Justice bowed and left the room. In a few minutes he returned, and, addressing Mr. Alston and Ernest, said: “Mr. Kershaw is not satisfied with what you offer to do. He declines to apologise for any expression that he may have used with reference to your mother, and he now wishes you to choose between signing an apology, which I shall dictate, or meeting him to-morrow morning. You must remember that we are in Guernsey, where you cannot insult a man on the payment of forty shillings.” Of course, this view was an entirely incorrect one. Although Guernsey has a political constitution of its own, many of its laws being based upon the old Norman-French customs, and judicial proceedings being carried on in French, &c., it is quite as criminal an act to fight a duel there as in England, as Captain Justice himself afterwards found out to his cost. But they none of them knew that. Ernest felt the blood run to his heart. He understood now what Captain Justice meant. He answered simply: “I shall be very happy to meet my cousin in whatever place and way you and Mr. Alston may agree upon;” and then he returned to his chair, and gave himself up to the enjoyment of his pipe and an entirely new set of sensations. Captain Justice gazed after him pityingly. “I am sorry for him,” he said to Mr. Alston. “Kershaw is, I believe, a good shot with pistols. I suppose you will choose pistols. It would be difficult to get swords in such a hurry. He is a fine young fellow. Took it coolly, by George! Well, I don’t think that he will trouble the world much longer.” “This is a silly business, and likely to land us all in a nasty mess. Is there no way out of it?” “None that I know of, unless your young friend will eat dirt. He is a nasty-tempered fellow, Kershaw, and wild about that woman, over whom he has spent thousands. Nor is he likely to forgive being rolled in the gutter. You had better get your man to give in, for if you don’t, Kershaw will kill him.” “It is no good talking of it. I have lived a rough life, and know what men are made of. He is not of that sort. Besides, your man is in the wrong, not that boy. If anybody spoke of my mother like that, I would shoot him.” “Very good, Mr. Alston. And now about the pistols; I have none.” “I have a pair of Smith & Wesson revolvers that I bought yesterday to take out to Africa with me. They throw a very heavy bullet, Captain Justice.” “Too heavy. If one of them is hit anywhere in the body——” He did not finish the sentence. Mr. Alston nodded. “We must put them twenty paces apart, to give them a chance of missing. And now about the place and the time?”