The Washington herald., 1915-08-29

Bunker, as he toyed with his S glass You
% asked me. sub. II I ever went on the
to kill my opponent. I replied that in
| only one case was this so, and IL was a
mighty strange case too
| Il was out riding on horseback with
the young lady. who afterward became
| my wife- In our ride we came to where
bridge had been carried away by a
freshet The stream was fifty feet wide
and ten feet deep, and there was no ford
ing II; We sat there on our horses talk
| ing ABOUT II, when a man appeared on
the other bank on horseback He was a
stranger to both of US: we were certain
| ly strangers to him. After three or four
minutes. 1 called out to him IL he knew
| of ford up or down. In reply, he open
ed on me in the most abusing Language.
He called me every bad name he could
| threats.
| had given him no cause whatever, and
mere he was abusing me like a pick
pocket. ! whispered to the young lady
! to ride back few rods out of hearing,
the stranger. In reply he abused me
worse than ever What made the sit
uatlon more puzzling, was that he rode
| fine horse, had on a fine suit of clothes
ana was evidently gentleman. and he
did not seen the least in liquor Then,
and the.e, sub. made up my mind that
II he would except a challenge from me,
would surely kill him
a day or two later / began to make
inquiries. and I found him to be a gen.
tleman named Hoyt, who had a planta-
ton about twenty-five miles away He
was man of good repute. and social
standing, and my informant could not
understand why he had used such Ian
guage to me. / sent friend out with
a challenge and it was not only prompt
Qcranfad ha
place of meeting within half a mile of
my house. This consideration on his part
was still another puzzle
L did not meet the gentleman till we
arrived on the ground. 1t is not usual
for the principles in a duel to shake
hands before cutting and shooting. They
are supposed to hardly glance at each
other until taking their positions. My
seconds and myself were therefore sur
prised when Mr.. Hoyt walked up to me,
with out stretched hands and said:
Colonel Bunker. ! am sorry to put
you to any trouble. but I am going to
kill you,
THAT makes no difference. I am 60
ing to put my bullet right between your
eyes. and thus rid the earth of the vilest
scoundrel that ever disgraced it,
Il could have been excused for think
ing the man insane. but yet ] could see
no signs of insanity about him He was
rather nervous. and it was plain that he
was a hish-strung man. There was
nothing else to do but take our places.
He had selected pistols as the weapons.
As he went to his post. l heard him
chuckling and then and there, I deter
mined that mine should be a fatal shot.
From the way he handled his pistol !
was sure that he was Q good marksman.
It looked very much as If we would
both be seriously wounded and perhaps
killed.
Ten PAGES is quite a long distance, my
friend. but l could clearly see in his
eyes, that he meant a fatal ending to
me. and 1 saw that our seconds had
pale faces. as they waited for the word
and the drop of the handkerchief; II
came at last, and we both fired together.
and both fell together.
For a time it was believed that we
were both dead, but the doctor found |
a queer state of affairs. We had both !
fired for each others forehead and our
bullets had raised Just enough to rake
our scalps. and render US as unconscious |
as IL actually dead. You see the rake |
which the bullet gave me. 1t Is a neat |
little furrow, and no hair Will ever grow
to conceal the scar.
IT found myself in bed at home, when |
T recovered my wits. Mr.. Hoyt had
been taken to a room in the hotel All
he said. when he had come back to earth
was the word home" but 1t was ten
days before he could travel. BEFORE me