THE DUEL.
AFFAIRS in the immediate vicinity of Don Leonardo's residence began to
assume a singular and very peculiar aspect. In the first place, there
was within doors, and under his immediate roof, four new comers, nearly
each of which was actuated by some contrary purpose or design. Mrs.
Huntington was exceedingly desirous to obtain passage up the coast to
Sierra Leone, and thence home to England; her daughter secretly dreaded
the approach of the hour that was to separate her from one whom in her
unrevealed heart she devotedly loved. Captain Ratlin was, of course, all
impatience to have the English cruiser up anchor and leave the harbor,
her proximity to his own fleet clipper ship being altogether too close,
while, Captain Bramble felt in no haste to leave port for several
reasons. First, he had a suspicion that he should soon be able to trip
up the heels of his rival, as it regarded this business on the coast;
and secondly, he was very content to have Miss Huntington remain here,
because he knew if she was once landed at Sierra Leone, she would
directly sail for England.
Don Leonardo heartily wished them all at the bottom of the sea, or any
other place except his house, with the exception, of course, of Captain
Ratlin, whose business with him was seriously impeded by the presence of
these parties. Maud, too, was not a disinterested party, as the reader
may well imagine, after the audacious treachery which she had already
evinced; but she was comparatively passive now, and seemed quietly to
bide her time for accomplishing her second resolve touching him she once
loved but now hated, as well as satisfying her revengeful spirit by the
misery or destruction of her rival. We say affairs in Don Leonardo's
residence had assumed a singular and peculiar aspect, and the dull
routine of everyday life that had characterized the last year was
totally changed.
The singular coincidence of the meeting between Miss Huntington and her
rejected lover, Captain Bramble, under such singular circumstances, led
him once more to press this suit, and now, as she regarded him largely
in the light of a protector, the widow quite approved of his intimacy,
and indeed, as far as propriety would permit, seconded his suit with her
daughter. When in India, she had looked most favorably upon Captain
Bramble's intimacy with her child, where there were accessory
circumstances to further her claims; but now she soon told her daughter
in private, that Captain Bramble was a match fit and proper in all
respects for such as she was.
"But, mother--"
"Well, my child?"
"Suppose, for instance, that I do not like Captain Bramble, then is he a
fitting match for me?"
"Not like him, my child?"
"Yes, mother, not like him."
"Why, is he not gentlemanly?"
"Yes."
"And of good family?"
"Undoubtedly."
"And handsome, and--"
"Hold, mother, you need not extend the catalogue. Captain Bramble can
never be my husband," she said, in a mild but determined tone that her
mother understood very well.
But Captain Bramble himself could not seem to understand this,
notwithstanding she was perfectly frank and open with him. He seemed to
be running away with the idea that if he could but get rid of Captain
Ratlin, in some way, he should then have a clear field, and be able to
win her hand under the peculiar circumstances surrounding her. Thus
moved, he redoubled his watchfulness touching the captain's movements,
satisfied that he should be able ere long to detect him in some
intrigue, as to running a cargo of slaves, and doubtless under such
circumstances that he could arrest and detain him, if not, by some lucky
chance, even have him tried and adjudged upon by the English commission
upon the coast.
To suppose that Captain Ratlin did not understand entirely the motives
and conduct of his enemy and would-be rival, would be to give him less
credit for discernment than he deserved. He understood the matter very
well, and, indeed, bore with assumed patience, for Miss Huntington's
sake, many impertinences that he would otherwise have instantly
asserted. But he marked out for himself a course, and he resolved to
adhere to it. Captain Bramble was not only a suitor of Miss
Huntington's, but an old and intimate friend, as he learned from her
family, and therefore he should avoid all quarrel whatever with him, and
so he did on his own part; but the English officer, enraged by his
apparent success, took every occasion to disparage the character of
Captain Ratlin, and even before Miss Huntington's own face, declared him
no gentleman.
"You are very severe, Captain Bramble," said the lady, "upon a person
whom you acknowledge you have not yet known a single calendar month."
"It is long enough, quite long enough, Miss Huntington, to read the
character of such an unprincipled fellow as this nondescript captain."
"I have known him about twice as long as you, Captain Bramble," replied
Miss Huntington, calmly, "and I have not only formed a very different
opinion of him, but have good reasons to feel satisfied of the
correctness of my judgment."
"I perceive that Miss Huntington has taken him under her protection,"
replied the discomfited officer, sarcastically, as he seized his hat and
left her.
While in this spirit, the two rivals met in the open space before the
hose of Don Leonardo, when the English officer vented some coarse and
scurrillous remarks upon Captain Ratlin, whose eyes flashed fire, and
who seized his traducer by the throat and bent him nearly double to the
earth, with an ease that showed his superior physical strength to be
immense, but as though impressed with some returning sense, Captain
Ratlin released his grasp and said:
"Rise, sir, you are safe from my hand; but fortunate it is for you that
you can call this lady whose name you have just referred to, friend; the
man whom she honors by her countenance is safe from any injury I can
inflict."
"A very chivalric speech," replied the enraged and brow-beaten officer.
"But you shall answer for this, sir, and at once. This is not the
spot--you must give me satisfaction for this base insult, or by the
heaven above us I will shoot you like a dog!"
"As you will, sir. I have spoken openly, and I shall abide by my word. I
am no boaster, nor do I expect any especial favor at the hands of the
lady whom you have named; but I repeat, sir, that my respect for her
renders her friend safe from any injury that I might otherwise, in just
indignation, inflict."
Little did either know that the object of their remarks had been a
silent but trembling witness of the entire scene, from the first
taunting word Captain Bramble had spoken.
Early the subsequent morning, even before the sun had risen, a boat
might have been seen pulling from the side of the English sloop-of-war,
propelled by the stout arms of a couple of seamen, while two persons sat
in the stern, a closer examination of whom would have revealed them to
be the captain of the ship and surgeon. At the same moment there shot
out from a little nook or bay in the rear of the barracoons, a light
skiff propelled by a single oarsman, who rowed his bark in true seamen
style, cross-handed, while a second party sat in the stern. The rower
was Captain Ratlin, and his companion was the swarthy and fierce-looking
Don Leonardo. That the same purpose guided the course of either boat was
apparent from the fact that both were headed for the same jutting point
of land that formed a sort of cape on the harbor's southern side.
"That is the fellow, he who pulls the oars," said Captain Bramble to his
surgeon.
"He must be a vulgar chap, and pulls those instruments as though bred to
the business."
"Not so very vulgar, either," said the other; "the fellow has seen the
world and has his notions of honor, and knows how to behave, that is
plain enough."
"Egad, he shoots that skiff ahead like an arrow; the fellow could make
his fortune as a ferryman," continued the surgeon, facetiously.
"Give way, lads, give way," said the English captain, impatiently, to
his men, as he saw that the skiff would reach the point long before he
got there himself.
A short half-hour found the two rivals standing opposite to each other
at some twelve paces distance, each with a pistol in his hand. The
preliminaries had been duly arranged between the surgeon and Don
Leonardo, the latter of whom had not ceased up to the last moment to
strive and effect a reconciliation. Not that he dreaded bloodshed, it
was a pastime to him, but because it jarred so manifestly with his
interests to have his friend run the risk of his life. Both of the
principals were silent. Captain Bramble was exceedingly red in the face,
and evidently felt the bitterness of anger still keenly upon him; while
the open, manly features of his opponent wore the same placid aspect as
had characterized them while he leaned over the side of his own ship, or
gazed idly into the rippling waters that laved the dark hull.
It had been arranged that both parties should aim and fire between the
commencement and end of pronouncing the words, "one, two, three," by the
surgeon; and that individual, having placed his box of instrument with
professional coolness upon the ground, took his position to give the
signal agreed upon, when he said, in a preparatory tone:
"Gentlemen, are you ready?"
To which both answered by an inclination of the head, and then
immediately followed:
"One, two, three!"
Almost before the first word was fairly articulated, the sharp quick
report of Captain Bramble's pistol was heard, and the next moment he was
observed gazing intently upon his adversary, to see whether he had
wounded him, and observing that he had not, he dashed his weapon to the
ground, uttering a fierce oath at his luck.
In the meantime Captain Ratlin had not moved an inch, not even a muscle;
his hand containing the pistol had hung quietly at his side, and his
face still remained undisturbed. He had kept his word, and would not
fire upon the friend of the woman whom he truly respected, and
earnestly, devotedly, though hopelessly loved.
Captain Bramble paced back and forth like a caged lion, until at last,
coming opposite and near to his adversary, he coarsely remarked:
"It is much easier for a trembling hand to retain a perpendicular
position than to assume a horizontal one!"
Captain Ratlin understood the taunt, and stepping to where the English
officer had thrown his discharged weapon, he threw it high in the air,
and at the exact moment when the power of gravitation turned the piece
towards the earth, he quickly raised his arm and fired, sending the
bullet in his own pistol completely through the wooden stock of the
other. Then turning coolly to Captain Bramble, he said:
"A trembling hand, sir, is hardly so sure of its aim as that."
"This fellow is the evil one himself," whispered the surgeon to his
principal. "Come, let us on board, if he should insist upon at second
shot, we should be obliged to give him the chance, since he did not fire
at you, and he would drop you spite of fate."
"Curse his luck; I am sure I had him full in the breast--such a miss,
and I, who am so sure at a dozen paces;" and the English officer
continued to chafe and growl until he had got into his boat, and was out
of hearing from the shore.
Captain Ratlin and Don Leonardo quietly pulled back towards the
barracoons, and as they neared the shore they saw the form of a female,
which both at once recognized to be that of Miss Huntington, who stood
there pale as death, and who gazed intently at the young commander as he
drew nearer and nearer, and as he jumped upon the shore, said, hastily:
"You have been on a fearful errand. Have either of you been hurt?"
"Nay, lady, it was but a bit of morning sport," said Captain Ratlin,
pleasantly.
"Answer me, was he injured, for I see you are not?"
"There has been no harm done to flesh and blood, lady."
"Heaven be praised!" said the half-fainting girl, as she leaned upon the
young commander's proffered arm, and they together approached the house
of Don Leonardo.
There had been another witness of the affair, one who was secreted on
the very spot where the meeting took place, one who had overheard the
arrangements for the same, and one who had secretly repaired thither
with hopes to have seen the blood of one, if not both, flow, even unto
death. And this was Maud, poor deluded, revengeful girl, who had
permitted one passion to fill her every thought, and who now lived and
dreamed only for revenge upon one who was as innocent of any intended
slight or wrong to her as he was to the being he really loved.
Maud, with the fleetness of an antelope, had ran by the land-path from
the spot of the contest, and reached home nearly as quick as the boat
containing her father and Captain Ratlin had done, and now, as she saw
her hated white rival leaning upon his arm, so pale, so confiding, and
he addressing her with such tender assurance, a fresh wound to her
already rankled and goaded feelings was imparted, and once more she
swore a fearful and quick revenge.
Captain Bramble, too much chagrined to make his appearance, at least for
a few days, did not soon land from his vessel, but mused alone in the
solitude of his cabin upon the obduracy of Miss Huntington's heart, and
the good luck which had saved his rival's life.