The herald., 1897-01-09
DUEL WITH SCISSORS

. 8. T. Ives. says the New York World,
promises to be one of the very best stor-
les Of adventure that the late Robert
Louis Stevenson ever wrote. And 1t Is,
so tar as Is has progressed in the pages
of the Pail Mall Magazine, more of love
story than any other from the pen of
this author. The story opens in the year
1913, and the scene is the castle of Edin-
burg. In this castle are a handful of
Frenchmen, prisoners of war. among
whom is Monsieur la Vicompte Anne de
Keroual de Saint Yves, known OF his
fellows as Champdivers. AS far as they
knew he was no better than they, and
he put on no airs. To get little pocket
money these prisoners were allowed to
carve bits of wood and sell them to the
visitors at the castle. St. Ives was the
poorest carver of the lot, but somehow
his carvings managed to attract the at
tention of beautiful young girl, Flora
by name. When she made her purchases
she addressed a few words to st. Ives
and he at once fell in love with her. Un-
doubtedly she was not uninfiuerced by
him, for she came another day and
brought her brother.
Among the prisoners was man nam
ed Gougelat, "a brute of the first water"
at the same time brave fellow. He had
noticed st. Ives passion for the young
lady, and one evening began to twit
him about it before all the men. What
the wretch said was unfit to print. but
the men who admired his brutal wit
laughed loud and long over it. AS for
ST. Ives, he thought he would have died
over it. He arose to his feet and said:
You have chosen to speak in certain
way of a young child who might be your
daughter, and who was giving aims to
me and some others of us mendicants.
If the emperor-saluting-if my emperor
no off t11.
cross from your gross body. I cannot
do that, l cannot take away what his
majesty has slven, but ore thing prom
Use you'll promise you. Goguelat, you
shall be dead tonight"
Ordinarily such threat as this would
be easy of accomplishment, but how to
kill man in prison where all were
watched was not an easy thing A duel
was. however. arranged. Let st. Ives.
or Champdivers, tell the story
SO far as regards place and time
we had no choice; we must settle the
dispute at night, in the dark, after
round had passed by. and in the open
middle of the shed where we slept. The
question of arms was more obscure
We had a good many tools. indeed.
which we employed in the manufacture
of our toys; but they were none of them
suited for single combat between
civilized men, and. being nordescrpt
it was found extremely hard to equaliZe
the chances of the comhatants. At
length a pair of scissors was unscrewed
and a couple of tough wands berg
found in a corner of the courtyard, one
blade of the scissors was dashed soldly
to each with resined twine-the twlne
coming l know not whence. but the
resin from the green pillars of the Shed
which still sweated from the axe. II
was strange thing to feel in ones
hand this weapon, which was no heavier
than a riding rod. and which 1t was diff
ticult to suppose would prove more dan
gerous. A general oath was admins
tered and taken that no one would in
terfere in the duel nor (suppose it to
result seriously) betray the name of the
survivor. And with that, all being
ready, we composed ourselves to await
the moment.
The evening fell cloudy; not star as
to be seen when Leclos. the sergeant
major, set us in our stations arranged
our wands. and left us To avoid blood
stained clothing, my adversary and |
had stripped to the shoes, ana the chill
Of the night eaveloped our bodies like
a wet sheet. The man was better at
fencing than myself He was vastly
taller than 7. being of a stature almost
gigantic and proportiorately strorr. III
the fnky blackness of the shed it wa inn
pbSSlblt u Stt MS yves, dl4u, liNill III
suppleness of the wands, did rot like
to trust to a parade | made up my
mind accordingly to profit. if l might,
by my defect, and is soon as the signal
should be given to throw myself down
and lunge at the same moment. 1t was
to play my life upon one card. Should
I not mortally hurt him. no defense
would be left me. What was yet more
appalling, ! thus ran the risk of bring
ing NV against his scissor.
with the double force of our assaults,
and my face and eyes are not that
part of me that would the more rea dily
expose.
"'Allez!' said the sergeant-major
Both lunged in the same moment
with an equal fury, and but for my man
euver both had certainly been spitted.
AS it was. he did no more than strike
my shoulder. while my scissor plunged
below the girdie into mortal part; and
that great bulk Of a man. falling from
his whole height, knocked me immediate
ly senseless.
when 1 came to myself was laid in
my own sleeping place and could make
out in the darkness the outline of per-
haps dozen heads crowded around me
| sat up. What is it?' / exclaimed.
Hush' said the sergeant major.
Blessed be God. all is Well 7 felt him
clasp my hand. and there We're tears In
his voice. ''Tis but scratch my child;
here is papa. who is taking good care of
you. Your shoulder is bound up: we
have dressed you in your clothes again
ard it will be all right
AT this ! began to remember. And
Goguelat?' gasped.
He cannot bear to be moved; he has
his belyful; tis bad business, said the
sergeant major.
The idea of having killed a man with
such an instrument as half a pair of
scissors seemed to turn my stomach.
am sure / might have killed a dozen
with a firelock, sabre, a bayonet or
any accepted weapon and been visited
by no such sickness or remorse. And to
this feeling every unusual circumstance
of our encounter, the darkness in which
we had fought, our nakedneSs, even the
resin on the twine appeared to contrib
ute. / ran to my fallen adversary,
kneeled by him and could only sob his
name.
He bade me compose myself. You
have given me the key of the fields,
comrade,' said he, Sans ranceur!'
"At this my horror redoubled. Hele
had we two eXpatriated Frenchmen en-
gagged in an illregulated combat like tha
battles of beasts. Here was he, who had
been all his life so great a ruffian, dying
in foreign land of this ignoble injury,
and meeting death with something CT
the spirit of Bayard. I insisted that
the guards should be summoned and a
doctor brought 1T may still be possible
L,