"Then pray name what weapon you will fight with," Merriam said, impatiently.
"This is the weapon we will use," I replied, producing, to the astonishment of the officer, my three foot six inch barrel rifle, which, during our absence the day before, Smith had cleaned and polished up thoroughly.
"This," I replied, "is an American rifle, and a very good one it is, I assure you."
"But we cannot fight with only one, and unless another is produced precisely like it, some other weapon will have to be resorted to," cried the officer, with a slight expression of joy.
"I am aware of that," I replied coolly, and to his astonishment I presented him with a fac-simile of the first.
"These rifles," I remarked, "were both made by the same person, and he was instructed to manufacture them without a shade of difference in regard to size or weight. The only method we have of telling them apart is to consult the stocks, where our names are engraved. Examine them attentively, and then select whichever you please. One is as good as the other, and each carries well."
The Englishman stared at the rifles with a countenance blank with dismay. They were weapons which he was entirely unacquainted with, and he felt that the safety of his principal demanded a remonstrance against their use.
"I object to the use of rifles," he said, at length, firmly and decidedly. "My friend is entirely unacquainted with these kind of weapons, and it would be madness on his part to go to the field with such odds against him."
I listened calmly, and with my mind unchanged. I knew that Fred's safety depended upon my selection, and inwardly vowed that if he had got to fight, he should settle the difficulty with his own weapons.
"This quarrel," I remarked, "is not of our seeking. A few words were spoken in jest by my friend, and as soon as spoken were forgotten; and it is probable that even now we should not remember the man we insulted. If my friend has got to fight, he shall be placed upon an equality with his adversary."
"But I do not call this equality," echoed the lieutenant, gazing with looks of dismay at the rifles.
"Neither do I feel disposed to risk my friend's life with swords, a weapon which he knows nothing of," I replied.