'Now then, gentlemen, take your places.'

The doctor whispered to Roland: 'Is it fair, quite, to fight him
when he says that you are a crack shot, and that he has never fired?'

'He lies, doctor; it is the other way. I learn that from childhood
he has been firing at all sorts of things with pistols; and _I have
never fired a pistol shot in my life._'

'Your places, gentlemen,' cried Drummond. Roland was already at his
post; but his opponent was not yet upon his ground.

'Why this unseemly haste?' he gasped. 'I am so unsteadied by my
illness, that I am really not in a position yet to take my ground.'
Harland spoke a word or two to Drummond, and then said in a voice
distinct and audible to all:

'If after I call three Mr. Ham is not upon his ground the affair
shall be declared off. My other alternative will then be in order.
One, two----'

'Hold, hold, I'm coming,' groaned the coward, as he took his place.

'Now, gentlemen, your backs to each other,' said Harland. 'I shall
count one, two, three, and at the end of the last count each man
shall wheel and fire.'

'If I fall I shall have you proceeded against, Drummond-you are in a
conspiracy to murder a sick man.'