Part 12 (2/2)

As he spoke, the secretary gathered up the various papers

”I think, sir,” said Merton, ”it will be well if one, or, better, two responsible people reht” This seemed to us a proper precaution

As we had talked I saw Merton playing with the dusty blue ribbon which, when he entered, lay beside the papers As we rose I missed it, and knew that he had put it in his pocket After we had arranged for our passports I left with Merton As alked away he said:

”I propose that you say at once to the baron's friends that ill leave for Belgiuht to choose You ht, and--confound it, don't look so anxious This affair has hurried things a little; I wanted more practice I should be a fool to say I a If I can tire hiet a scratch such as stops these affairs--somehoill come to an end, and, at all events, how better could I risk htly talked about in the clubs to-night” West and I took care that it was

The next day early ere at the legation The first secretary was preparing the dummy ”Pity,” said Merton, ”to leave the enclosure a blank” The secretary laughed and wrote on the inside cover:

Trust you will find this interesting,

Yours,

_Uncle Sa at our passports and talking loudly

At ten thatthe first secretary and an attache started for London To anticipate, he was jostled by two men on the Dover pier that afternoon, and until a few minutes later did not detect his loss of the papers It was cleverly done Of course he made a complaint and the police proved useless

XV

The duel had been duly discussed at the clubs, and it is probable that no one suspected Merton of any other purpose The baron was eager and Belgium a common resort for duels On the same day after the secretary's departure for London, Merton took the train for Brussels with Lieutenant West, the baron and his friends, Count le Moyne and the colonel The captain had the papers fastened under his shi+rt, and, as I learned later, ell arard to our double errand, and, as I had talked freely of being one of the seconds, I was able to follow them, as far as I could see, unwatched, except by Alphonse, who proone to Belgiu we met Le Moyne and the little colonel at the small town of Meule, just over the border, and settled the usual prelirassy space within a wood The lieutenant had the precious papers We stepped aside The as given and the blades met Merton surprised me It is needless to enter into details He was clearly no ility and watchful blue eyes served him well Then, of a sudden, there was a quicker contest The baron's sword entered Merton's right arht, but as the baron was trying to recover his blade, instead of recoiling, Merton threw hiht in his arh the baron's right lung Then both ered back and Porthos fell

I hurried Merton away to an inn, where the wound his own act had h inhiht At noon next day Mr Adams had the papers and this queer tale which, as I said, is unaccountably left out of his biography I have often wondered where, to-day, are those papers

The count remained with Porthos at a farm-house near by Hebitterly that M Merton's methods lacked the refine other docuh draft of a letter dated October 15, 1862, fro intervention to the courts of England and Russia It appeared in the French journals about November 14, when the crisis had passed Mr Adams acted on the manly instructions of Mr Seward, and Mr Gladstone lived to change his opinions on this ed alarde, unknown to history, had saved the situation The English minister declined the French proposals

Soon after I returned, Madah, Merton went to see her She had been released, as we supposed she would be, with a pro of her exaht it as well not to call upon her, but when Merton told h to ask whether he had returned to her the ribbon To this he replied that I had a talent for observation and that I had better ask her

She had been ordered to leave France for six months I am under the impression that he wrote to her and she to him The thrust in his arm, which would otherwise have been of small moment, his own decisive act had converted into a rather bad open wound, and, as it healed very slowly, under advice he resigned from the arether In December he left for Italy

I was not surprised to receive in the spring an invitation to the ht to add that Le Moyne lost his place in the Foreign Office, but, being of an influential family, was later employed in the diplomatic service

Circumstances, as Alphonse remarked, made it desirable for hienerous and my valet married and became the prosperous master of a well-known restaurant in New York

XVI

Late in 1868 Merton rejoined the arain until in 1869, when I was Aue In June of that year Colonel and Mrs Merton becauests When I told Mrs

Merton that Count le Moyne was the French ambassador in Holland, she said to her husband: