He returned to his chair an^ deliberately lighted a cigar.
"I am sorry about your shoulder," he said at last. "Let me send for the doctor."
"Not in the least," said I. "It is a trifle. I am quite used to it. It does not trouble me in the smallest. At any rate, I don't believe in doctors."
"All right," said he, and sat and smoked a good while in a silence which I would have given anything to break. "Well," he began presently, "I believe there is nothing left for me to learn. I presume I may say that I know all."
"About what?" said I boldly.
"About Goguelat," said he.
"I beg your pardon. I cannot conceive," said I.
"Oh," says the major, "the man fell in a duel, and by your hand! I am not an infant."
"By no means," said I. "But you seem to me to be a good deal of a theorist."
"Shall we test it?" he asked. "The doctor is close by. If there is not an open wound on your shoulder, I am wrong. If there is" He waved his hand. "But I advise you to think twice. There is a deuce of a nasty drawback to the experiment—that what might have remained private between us two becomes public property."
"Oh, well!" said I, with a laugh, "anything rather than a doctor! I cannot bear the breed."
His last words had a good deal relieved me, but I was still far from comfortable.
Major Chevenix smoked awhile, looking now at his cigar ash, now at me. "I'm a soldier myself," he says presently, "and I've been out in my time and hit my man. I don't want to run any one into a corner for an affair that was at all necessary or correct. At the same time, I want to
