In the Days of Poor Richard
CHAPTER IX
THE ENCOUNTER
Solomon, Jack and their friend left London that afternoon in the saddleand took lodgings at The Rose and Garter, less than a mile from thescene appointed for the encounter. That morning the Americans had senta friend of Preston by post chaise to Deal, with Solomon's luggage.Preston had also engaged the celebrated surgeon, Doctor Brooks, tospend the night with them so that he would be sure to be on hand in themorning. The doctor had officiated at no less than a dozen duels andenjoyed these affairs so keenly that he was glad to give his helpwithout a fee. The party had gone out in the saddle because Prestonhad said that the horses might be useful.
So, having discussed the perils of the immediate future, they had doneall it was in their power to do to prepare for them. Late that eveningthe General and his son and four other gentlemen arrived at The Roseand Garter. Certain of them had spent the afternoon in theneighborhood shooting birds and rabbits.
Solomon got Jack to bed early and sat for a time in their roomtinkering with the pistols. When the locks were working "right," as heput it, he polished their grips and barrels.
"Now I reckon they'll speak out when ye pull the trigger," he said toJack. "An' yer eyesight 'll skate erlong easy on the top o' thembar'ls."
"It's a miserable kind of business," said the young man, who was lyingin bed and looking at his friend. "We Americans have a rather hardtime of it, I say. Life is a fight from beginning to end. We have hadto fight with the wilderness for our land and with the Indians and theFrench for our lives, and now the British come along and tell us whatwe must and mustn't do and burn up our houses."
"An' spit on us an' talk as if we was a lot o' boar pigs," saidSolomon. "But ol' Jeff tol' me 'twere the King an' his crowd that wasmakin' all the trouble."
"Well, the King and his army can make us trouble enough," Jackanswered. "It's as necessary for an American to know how to fight asto know how to walk."
"Now ye stop worryin' an' go to sleep 'er I'll take ye crost my knee,"said Solomon. "They ain't goin' to be no great damage done, not if yedo as I tell ye. I've been an' looked the ground over an' if we haveto leg it, I know which way to go."
Solomon had heard from Preston that evening that the Lieutenant was thebest pistol shot in his regiment, but he kept the gossip to himself,knowing it would not improve the aim of his young friend. But Solomonwas made uneasy by this report.
"My boy kin throw a bullet straight as a plumb line an' quick aslightnin'," he had said to Preston. "It's as nat'ral fer him asdrawin' his breath. That ere chap may git bored 'fore he has time topull. I ain't much skeered."
Jack was nervous, although not from fear. His estimate of the value ofhuman life had been increased by his affection for Margaret. WhenSolomon had gone to bed and the lights were blown, the young man feltevery side of his predicament to see if there were any peaceable wayout of it. For hours he labored with this hopeless task, until he fellinto a troubled sleep, in which he saw great battalions marching towardeach other. On one side, the figures of himself and Solomon wererepeated thousands of times, and on the other was a host of LionelClarkes.
The words came to his ear: "My son, we're goin' to fight the firstbattle o' the war."
Jack awoke suddenly and opened his eyes. The candle was lighted.Solomon was leaning over him. He was drawing on his trousers.
"Come, my son," said the scout in a gentle voice. "They ain't a cloudan' the moon has got a smile on her face. Come, my young David.Here's the breeches an' the purty stockin's an' shoes, an' the lilywhite shirt. Slip 'em on an' we'll kneel down an' have a word o'prayer. This 'ere ain't no common fight. It's a battle with tyranny.It's like the fight o' David an' Goliar. Here's yer ol' sling waitin'fer ye!"
Solomon felt the pistols and stroked their grips with a loving hand.
Side by side they knelt by the bed together for a moment of silentprayer.
Others were stirring in the inn. They could hear footsteps and lowvoices in a room near them. Jack put on his suit of brown velvet andhis white silk stockings and best linen, which he had brought in asmall bag. Jack was looking at the pistols, when there came a rap atthe door. Preston entered with Doctor Brooks.
"We are to go out quietly ahead of the others," said the Captain."They will follow in five minutes."
Solomon had put on the old hanger which had come to England with him inhis box. He put the pistols in his pocket and they left the inn by arear door. A groom was waiting there with the horses saddled andbridled. They mounted them and rode to the field of honor. When theydismounted on the ground chosen, the day was dawning, but the greatoaks were still waist deep in gloom. It was cold.
Preston called his friends to his side and said:
"You will fight at twenty paces. I shall count three and when I dropmy handkerchief you are both to fire."
Solomon turned to Jack and said:
"If ye fire quick mebbe ye'll take the crook out o' his finger 'fore ithas time to pull."
The other party was coming. There were six men in it. The General andhis son and one other were in military dress. The General was chattingwith a friend. The pistols were loaded by Solomon and General Clarke,while each watched the other. The Lieutenant's friends and secondsstood close together laughing at some jest.
"That's funny, I'll say, what--what!" said one of the gentlemen.
Jack turned to look at him, for there had been a curious inflection inhis "what, what!" He was a stout, highly colored man with large,staring gray eyes. The young American wondered where he had seen himbefore.
Preston paced the ground and laid down strips of white ribband markingthe distance which was to separate the principals. He summoned theyoung men and said: "Gentlemen, is there no way in which your honor canbe satisfied without fighting?"
They shook their heads.
"Your stations have been chosen by lot. Irons, yours is there. Takeyour ground, gentlemen."
The young men walked to their places and at this point the graphicMajor Solomon Binkus, whose keen eyes observed every detail of thescene, is able to assume the position of narrator, the words whichfollow being from a letter he wrote to John Irons of Albany.
"Our young David stood up thar as straight an' han'some as a youngspruce on a still day--not a quiver in ary twig. The Clarke boy was aleetle pale an' when he raised his pistol I could see a twitch in hislips. He looked kind o' stiff. I see they was one thing' 'boutshootin' he hadn't learnt. It don't do to tighten up. I wereskeered--I don't deny it--'cause a gun don't allus have to be p'intedcareful to kill a man.
"We all stood watchin' every move. I could hear a bird singin' twentyrod,--'twere that still. Preston stood a leetle out o' line 'bouthalf-way betwixt 'em. Up come his hand with the han'kerchief in it.Then Jack raised his pistol and took a peek down the line he wanted.The han'kerchief was in the air. Don't seem so it had fell an inchwhen the pistols went pop! pop! Jack's hollered fust. Clarke's pistolfell. His arm dropped an' swung limp as a rope's end. His hand turnedred an' blood began to spurt above it. I see Jack's bullet had jumpedinto his right wrist an' tore it wide open. The Lieutenant staggered,bleedin' like a stuck whale. He'd 'a' gone to the ground but hisfriends grabbed him. I run to Jack.
"'Be ye hit?' I says.
"'I think his bullet teched me a little on the top o' the leftshoulder,' says he.
"I see his coat were tore an' we took it off an' the jacket, an' Iripped the shirt some an' see that the bullet had kind o' scuffed itsfoot on him goin' by, an' left a track in the skin. It didn't mount tonothin'. The Doctor washed it off an' put a plaster on.
"'Looks as if he'd drawed a line on yer heart an' yer bullet had liftedhis aim,' I says. 'Ye shoot quick, Jack, an' mebbe that's what savedye.'
"It looked kind o' neevarious like that 'ere Englishman had intendedthey was goin' to be one Yankee less. Jack put on his jacket an' hiscoat an' we stepped over to see how they was gettin' erlong with theother feller. The two doct
ors was tryin' fer to fix his arm and hewere groanin' severe. Jack leaned over and looked down at him.
"'I'm sorry,' he says. 'Is there anything I can do?'
"'No, sir. You've done enuff,' growled the old General.
"One o' his party stepped up to Jack. He were dressed like a high-upofficer in the army. They was a cur'ous look in his eyes--kind o'skeered like. Seemed so I'd seen him afore somewheres.
"'I fancy ye're a good shot, sir--a good shot, sir--what--what?' hesays to Jack, an' the words come as fast as a bird's twitter.
"I've had a lot o' practise,' says our boy.
"'Kin ye kill that bird--what--what?" says he, p'intin' at a hawk thatwere a-cuttin' circles in the air.
"'If he comes clus' 'nough,' says Jack.
"I passed him the loaded pistol. In 'bout two seconds he lifted it andbang she went, an' down come the hawk.
"Them fellers all looked at one 'nother.
"'Gin'ral, shake hands with this 'ere boy,' says the man with theskeered eyes. 'If he is a Yankey he's a decent lad--what--what?'
"The Gin'ral shook hands with Jack an', says he: 'Young man, I have nodoubt o' 'yer curidge or yer decency.'
"A grand pair o' hosses an' a closed coach druv up an' the ol'what-whatter an' two other men got into it an' hustled off 'cross thefield towards the pike which it looked as if they was in a hurry.'Fore he were out o' sight a military amb'lance druv up. Preston comeover to us an' says he:
"'We better be goin'.'
"'Do ye know who he were?' asks Jack.
"'If ye know ye better fergit it,' says Preston.
"'How could I? He were the King o' England,' says Jack. 'I knowed himby the look o' his eyes.'
"'Sart'in sure,' says I. 'He's the man that wus bein' toted in achair.'
"'Hush! I tell ye to fergit it,' says Preston.
"'I can fergit all but the fact that he behaved like a gentleman,' saysJack.
"'I 'spose he were usin' his private brain,' says I."
This, with some slight changes in spelling, paragraphing andpunctuation, is the account which Solomon Binkus gave of the mostexciting adventure these two friends had met with.
Preston came to Jack and whispered: "The outcome is a great surprise tothe other side. Young Clarke is a dead shot. An injured officer ofthe English army may cause unexpected embarrassment. But you have timeenough and no haste. You can take the post chaise and reach the shipwell ahead of her sailing."
"I am of a mind not to go with you," Jack said to Solomon. "When I go,I shall take Margaret with me."
So it happened that Jack returned to London while Solomon waited forthe post chaise to Deal.