Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/96

 the horrid blackness, sword in my hand, eager for every sound amid the uproar of the elements, and expectant to be lanced through the groin any moment by the man, for whom I was so far from having any bitterness but I would gladly have shook hands with him there and then. You must conceive me, in this notable predicament, and regretting the job with all my heart, while I listened, straining like a cat at bay. And suddenly a brisker noise to my left set me spinning round, and I struck out fiercely. At the same moment our weapons clinked together, and the next instant his point was stinging in my arm. “Touched, Ryder, touched,” said he merrily; and at that, feeling the prick, and being now gotten to quarters, I fell sharply to the exchanges with a better stomach.

’Twas a Bedlam business, and I can mind the feel of it to this day. Our swords clinked and clashed, but according with no rules, owing to the remarkable blackness. At the first he whistled away, but by-and-bye, warming to the work, and, as I suppose, losing something