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 wall to wall, lengthwise of the room, it was eighteen paces. We measured fifteen paces and marked the distance with chalk.

“The battle for life and death was to begin.

“I looked at Šetina. I scrutinized his features carefully for a sign of fear, anxiety or some sort of misgiving. I am to some extent superstitious, and I would have foretold a bad ending. I saw nothing. He calmly placed himself in position and smiled blissfully, as if thoughts of his bride and of his mother were occupying him. At intervals he snapped the fingers of his left hand.

“I took new hope. Šetina was also a good shot—at that moment he was calm—what then could happen Involuntarily I smiled at my former anxieties.

“At the signal ‘three’ the rivals were to fire simultaneously.

“My last attempt at a reconciliation was rejected by both—by Martini wrathfully, by Šetina with a smile.

“The order sounded. Two flashes sped across the space of the room, which immediately filled with smoke. We heard a heavy fall and the clink of breaking glass.

“With arms outstretched Šetina lay near the wall with his face to the ground. His forehead was shattered. Portions of the brain were on the wall. From his head the blood was spurting. He was dead.

“His ball struck several feet above Martini’s head into a portrait of the emperor and broke the glass.