'Nothing to say indeed, Sir,' said Mr Snodgrass, who was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable about it all.

'Shall we begin?' said the officer.

'Certainly,' replied Mr Snodgrass. The ground between the duellists was measured, and preliminaries arranged. 'You will find that these pistols are better than your own,' said the officer, producing his pistols. 'You saw me load them. Do you object to using them?'

'Certainly not,' replied Mr Snodgrass. The offer saved him from being very embarrassed, because his ideas about how to load a pistol were rather vague and undefined.

'We may put the duellists into position, I think,' said the officer, with as much indifference as if the duellists were chessmen, and the seconds the chess players.

'I think we may,' replied Mr Snodgrass; who would have agreed to any proposition, because he knew nothing about how these things were done. The officer went over to Doctor Slammer, and Mr Snodgrass went up to Mr Winkle. 'It's all ready,' he said, giving him the pistol. 'Give me your cloak.'