We rode on in silence for a little space, and then my youthling must
needs break out again in fresh beseechings.

"Tell me what you know of him, and what it was he said of Madge," he
entreated. "You can't deny me now, Jack."

"I can and shall. It matters not to you or to any what he is or has
been."

"Why?"

"Because, as God gives me strength and skill, I shall presently run him
through, and so his account will be squared once for all with all
men--and all women, as well."

"God speed you," quoth my loyal ally. "I knew not your quarrel with him
was so bitter."

"It is to the death."

"So it seems. In that case, if by any accident he--"

I divined what he would say and broke in upon him.

"Nay, Dick; if he thrusts me out, you must not take up my quarrel. I
know not where you learned to twirl the steel, or how, but you may be
sure he would spit you like a trussed fowl in the first bout. I have
seen him kill a man who was reckoned the best short sword in my old
regiment of the Blues."