some people are born to find things out—to overhear, to reach a place just at the moment in which an event comes to pass there—born indeed, with the news-gatherer’s instinct perfectly developed. miss crabb was one of these. how she chanced to over-hear some low-spoken but deadly sounding words that passed between peck and crane, it would be hard to say; still she overheard them, and her heart jumped almost into her mouth. it was a thrillingly dramatic passage, there under the heavy-topped oak by the west veranda in the gloom.
“villain!” exclaimed crane, in the hissing voice of a young tragedy-player at rehearsal,
“villain! you shall not escape me. defend yourself!”
“nonsense,” said peck, “you talk like a fool. i don’t want to fight! what’s that you’ve got in your hand?”
“a sword, you cowardly craven!”
“you call me a coward! if i had a good club i should soon show you what i could do, you sneaking assassin!”
more words and just as bitter followed, till at last a fight was agreed upon to take place immediately, at a certain point on the verge of a[47] cliff not far away. there were to be no seconds and the meeting was to end in the death of one or both of the combatants.
to miss crabb all this had a sound and an appearance as weird as anything in the wildest romance she ever had read. it was near mid-night; the hotel was quite soundless and the moon on high made the shadows short and black.
“meet me promptly at the eagle’s nest in ten minutes,” said crane, “i’ll fetch my other sword and give you choice.”
“all right, sir,” responded peck, “but a club would do.”
the peculiar hollowness of their voices affected the listener as if the sounds had come from a tomb. she felt clammy. doubtless there is a considerable element of humorous, almost ludicrous bravado in such a scene when coolly viewed; but miss crabb could not take a calm, critical attitude just then. at first she was impelled almost irresistibly toward interfering and preventing a bloody encounter; but her professional ambition swept the feeling aside. still, being a woman, she was dreadfully nervous. “ugh!” she shuddered, “it will be just awful, but i can’t afford to miss getting the full particulars for the lightning express. a sure enough duel! it will make my fortune! oh, if i were a man, now, just only for a few hours, what a comfort it would be! but all the same i must follow them—i must see the encounter,[48] describe it as an eye-witness and send it by wire early in the morning.”
it occurred to her mind just then that the nearest telegraph station was twelve miles down the mountain, but she did not flinch or waver. the thought that she was required to do what a man might well have shrunk from gave an element of heroism to her pluck. she was conscious of this and went about her task with an elasticity and facility truly admirable.
eagle’s nest was the name of a small area on the top of a beetling cliff whose almost perpendicular wall was dotted with clumps of sturdy little cedar trees growing out of the chinks. it was a dizzy place at all times, but by night the effect of its airy height was very trying on any but the best nerves. crane and peck both were men of fine physique and were possessed of stubborn courage and great combativeness. they met on the spot and after choosing swords, coolly and promptly proceeded to the fight. on one hand, close to the cliff’s edge, was a thick mass of small oak bushes, on the other hand lay a broken wall of fragmentary stones. the footing-space was fairly good, though a few angular blocks of stone lay here and there, and some brushes of stiff wood-grass were scattered around.
crane led with more caution than one would have expected of an irate kentuckian, and peck responded with the brilliant aplomb of an enthusiastic duelist.
the swords were neither rapiers nor broad-swords,[49] being the ordinary dress-weapons worn by confederate infantry officers in the war time—weapons with a history, since they had been at the thigh of father and son, the bravest of kentucky cranes, through many a stormy battle.
peck’s back was toward the precipice-brink at the commencement of the engagement, but neither had much the advantage, as the moon was almost directly overhead. as their weapons began to flash and clink, the slender keen echoes fell over into the yawning chasm and went rattling down the steep, ragged face of the precipice. they were vigorous and rather good fencers and it would have been evident to an onlooker of experience that the fight was to be a long one, notwithstanding the great weight of the swords they were using. they soon began to fight fiercely and grew more vehemently aggressive each second, their blows and thrusts and parries and counter-cuts following each other faster and faster until the sounds ran together and the sparks leaped and shone even in the bright moonlight. they mingled broad-sword exercise with legitimate rapier fencing and leaped about each other like boxers, their weapons whirling, darting, rising, falling, whilst their breathing became loud and heavy. it was a scene to have stirred the blood of men and women four hundred years ago, when love was worth fighting for and when men were quite able and willing to fight for it.
the combatants strained every point of their[50] strength and skill, and not a drop of blood could either draw. slash, thrust, whack, clink, clank, clack, click, cling! round and round they labored, the fury of their efforts flaming out of their eyes and concentrating in the deep lines of their mouths. as if to listen, the breeze lay still in the trees and the great owl quit hooting in the ravine. faster and faster fell the blows, swifter and keener leaped the thrusts, quicker and surer the parries were interposed. the swords were hacked and notched like hand-saws, the blades shook and hummed like lyre-cords. now close to the cliff’s edge, now over by the heap of broken stones and then close beside the clump of oak bushes, the men, panting and sweating, their muscles knotted, their sinews leaping like bow-strings, their eyes standing out, as if starting from their sockets, pursued each other without a second’s rest or wavering.
at last, with an irresistible spurt of fury, crane drove peck right into the bushes with a great crash and would not let him out. the critic was not vanquished, however, for, despite the foliage and twigs, he continued to parry and thrust with dangerous accuracy and force.
just at this point a strange thing happened. right behind peck there was a tearing, crashing sound and a cry, loud, keen, despairing, terrible, followed immediately by the noise of a body descending among the cedars growing along the face of the awful precipice.
it was a woman’s voice, shrieking in deadly[51] horror that then came up out of the dizzy depth of space below!
the men let fall their swords and leaped to the edge of the cliff with the common thought that it was miss moyne who had fallen over. they reeled back giddy and sick, staggering as if drunken.
far down they had seen something white fluttering and gleaming amid a tuft of cedars and a quavering voice had cried:
“help, help, oh, help!”
and so the duel was at an end.
