Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-11-16
THE QUIET MAN.

l never vt told you about the
st!angcst of them all; and i can
promise you that it's II story worth
hearing"
SO SPOKE Gen. r., as VIC sat side
by side in the veranda of his snug
little house in one OF. the Northwest
ern provinces OF India, watching the
sun sink behind the endless line of
stately palm trees that stood ranged
like plumed soldiers along the oppo-
site bank OF the river.
"Suppose you tell it me now, Cen
eral," suggested !, guessing from the
grave look on the old hcro's weather.
beaten face that the Forthcoming
story must have deeper int est than
any Of his ordinary campaigning anc~
(OteA.
II don't m nd il l do" answered
the veteran, 'fOr although it is an
affair that have nogreat pleasure in
looking back upon, yet it taught me
a good lesson, ii only had the sense
to profit by It,"
when l was quite a young fellow,
and hadn't long Joined the army"
he resumed after pause, II used to
belong to a fashionable club in Lon
don, the members of which were just
the sort of men you read about in
Levers n0vel's-as wild as could be.
always in some scrapc or other, and
spending their whole time in riding,
shooting, gambling, or tlshing-ail ex-
cept one.
THAT one was a small. quiet, pale
faced. gray-haired man, with very
sad. weary look, as II he had once
been crushed by some great sorrow,
and had never been able to shake it
off. He hardly ever spoke to any one,
and when he did it was in a voice as
meek as his face So, of course, we
made fun of him among ourselves,
finding these quiet ways of his very
queer contrast to our own rackety,
harum-scarum style, and we nick
named him the 'Quietest Man in the
Club though, indeed. we might just
as we'll have called him the only quiet
man in it
We'll, one evening, when the
room was pretty full, and our friend,
the Quiet Man, was sitting as usual
in the far corner, away from every
body else, we began to talk about
duelling; subject with which we
were tOlerably familiar. for there was
hardly man among US who hadn't
been out once
% They did some tidy duelling in
the old times said Lord H, who
was killed afterward in action. you
remember how those six chums of
Harry III. of France fought three to
three till there was only one left
alive out of the six
"'That was pretty fair, certainly
cried Charlie Thornton Of the Guards;
'but after all, it doesn't beat the
great duel thirty years ago between
Sir Harry Martingaie and Col. For
tescue.'
''He had hardly spoken when up
jumped the quiet man as il somebody
had stuck a pin into him.
''What on earth's the matter
with him. whispered Thornton; i
never saw him act like that before
'.'But what was the story, then,
Charlie?' asked another man; .I've
heard Of Fortescue, of course, for he
was the most famous dueliist of his
time in all England; and Pvc heard
of his fight with Martingale, too; but
! don't think I'ye ever had any par
ticulars or, at least, none worth
speaking Of
Il can give them to you. then,'
answered Thornton; for my uncle
was Martingale's second. Pve heard
him tell the story many time, and
he always said that although he had
been in plenty of duets, he had never
seen one like that. and never wanted
to see it again. What they quarreled
about don't know, and l dare say
they didn't know themselves but my
uncle used to say he knew by the
look in their eyes when they took
their places to fire that it could not
end without blood. and it didn't
They fred twice, and every shot told;
and their seconds, seeing both men
were hard hit aud bleeding fast
wanted to puo an end to it, But
FOrtescue-who was one of those
grim fellows who are always most
dangerous toward the end OF a fight
insisted upon third shot The
third time, by some accident, Martin
gale fired moment too soon, and
gave him bad wound in the side,
but Fortscue pressed his hand to the
wound to stop the bleeding, and
then, almost bent double with pain
though he was, he fired and brought
down his man.
"skilled him?"
"'Rather-shot him slap though
the heart But it was his last duel.
for from that day he was never heard
of again, and people said he had
either committed suicide or died of a
broken heart
"'Well, don't see why he need
have done that for, after all. it was
fair fight struck in Lord H,
who had been looking over the news.
papers on the table; but il you talk
OF duelling, what do you say to this?'
"'Another Dueliing Tragedy in
Paris. The notorious Prussian bully
and duelist, Armand de Villeneuve,
has added another wreath to his