"I acknowledge that that is the truth, Mr. Sheridan," said Major O'Teague; "but you'll pardon me if I say that I can't for the life of me see what that disclosure has to do with the matter before us."
"What, sir, you don't think that a gentleman should be exempted from fighting with so unscrupulous an adventurer as, on your own admission, Captain Mathews has proved to be?" said Dick.
"Upon my soul, I don't, Mr. Sheridan," said O'Teague. "On the contrary, sir, it appears to me that a man who behaved so dishonourably as my friend Captain Mathews has done, makes a most suitable antagonist for a gentleman of honour like Mr. Long or yourself, sir."
Mr. MacMahon, the stranger who had come to witness the fight, had taken the little boy by the hand, and was leading him up the meadow away from the men; and every now and again the child looked over his shoulder with big, puzzled eyes. He was asking a perpetual question.
"Sir," said Dick, with great promptitude when O'Teague had spoken--"Sir, I give you my word that I have no objection to fight Captain Mathews myself."
"No," cried Mr. Long. "No laws of honour demand that a gentleman shall stand up before a felon."
"True, sir," said Major O'Teague; "but you see, nothing that Captain Mathews has yet done can be construed as an act of felony."
"Indeed, sir, Captain Mathews and I know better than that," said Mr. Long.
"'Tis a lie--I swear that 'tis a foul lie!" shouted Mathews. "I admit that years ago---- But there were no proofs that the girl did not die by her own hands. She did it to be revenged upon me. Have you proofs? If you have, pray produce them."
"I have proof enough to send you to the hangman," said Mr. Long.
"Sir," said Major O'Teague, "I did not come hither to listen to such recrimination. You must be aware, Mr. Long, that you have seriously compromised your position as a man of honour by making a vague charge against your opponent a pretext for backing out of a fight with him. If a man was a fool years ago--well, which of us hasn't been a fool at some time of our life?"
"Sir," said Mr. Long, "I do not need to be instructed on points of honour by you or any one else. I did not refer to your friend's felony of four years ago, but to a much more recent act of his."