to render me a dangerous and delicate service; dangerous because
you may run the hazard of your lives, and delicate because I must

ask an absolutediscretion upon all that you shall see or hear.
From an utter stranger the request is almost comically extravagant;

I am well aware of this; and I would add at once, if there be any
one present who has heard enough, if there be one among the party

who recoils from a dangerous confidence and a piece of Quixotic
devotion to he knows not whom - here is my hand ready, and I shall

wish him good-night and God-speed with all the sincerity in the
world."

A very tall, black man, with a heavy stoop, immediately responded
to this appeal.

"I commend your frankness, Sir," said he; "and, for my part, I go.
I make no reflections; but I cannot deny that you fill me with

suspicious thoughts. I go myself, as I say; and perhaps you will
think I have no right to add words to my example."

"On the contrary," replied Mr. Morris, "I am obliged to you for all
you say. It would be impossible to exaggerate the gravity of my

proposal."
"Well, gentlemen, what do you say?" said the tall man, addressing

the others. "We have had our evening's frolic; shall we all go
homeward peaceably in a body? You will think well of my suggestion

in the morning, when you see the sun again in innocence and
safety."

The speakerpronounced the last words with an intonation which
added to their force; and his face wore a singular expression, full

of gravity and significance. Another of the company rose hastily,
and, with some appearance of alarm, prepared to take his leave.

There were only two who held their ground, Brackenbury and an old
red-nosed cavalry Major; but these two preserved a nonchalant

demeanour, and, beyond a look of intelligence which they rapidly
exchanged, appeared entirely foreign to the discussion that had

just been terminated.
Mr. Morris conducted the deserters as far as the door, which he

closed upon their heels; then he turned round, disclosing a
countenance of mingled relief and animation, and addressed the two

officers as follows.
"I have chosen my men like Joshua in the Bible," said Mr. Morris,

"and I now believe I have the pick of London. Your appearance
pleased my hansom cabmen; then it delighted me; I have watched your

behaviour in a strange company, and under the most unusual
circumstances: I have studied how you played and how you bore your

losses; lastly, I have put you to the test of a staggering
announcement, and you received it like an invitation to dinner. It

is not for nothing," he cried, "that I have been for years the
companion and the pupil of the bravest and wisest potentate in

Europe."
"At the affair of Bunderchang," observed the Major, "I asked for

twelve volunteers, and every trooper in the ranks replied to my
appeal. But a gaming party is not the same thing as a regiment

under fire. You may be pleased, I suppose, to have found two, and
two who will not fail you at a push. As for the pair who ran away,

I count them among the most pitiful hounds I ever met with.
Lieutenant Rich," he added, addressing Brackenbury, "I have heard

much of you of late; and I cannot doubt but you have also heard of
me. I am Major O'Rooke."

And the veteran tendered his hand, which was red and tremulous, to
the young Lieutenant.

"Who has not?" answered Brackenbury.
"When this little matter is settled," said Mr. Morris, "you will

think I have sufficiently rewarded you; for I could offer neither a
more valuable service than to make him acquainted with the other."

"And now," said Major O'Rooke, "is it a duel?"
"A duel after a fashion," replied Mr. Morris, "a duel with unknown

and dangerous enemies, and, as I gravely fear, a duel to the death.
I must ask you," he continued, "to call me Morris no longer; call

me, if you please, Hammersmith; my real name, as well as that of
another person to whom I hope to present you before long, you will

gratify me by not asking and not seeking to discover for
yourselves. Three days ago the person of whom I speak disappeared

suddenly from home; and, until this morning, I received no hint of
his situation. You will fancy my alarm when I tell you that he is

engaged upon a work of private justice. Bound by an unhappy oath,
too lightly sworn, he finds it necessary, without the help of law,

to rid the earth of an insidious and bloodyvillain. Already two
of our friends, and one of them my own born brother, have perished

in the enterprise. He himself, or I am much deceived, is taken in
the same fatal toils. But at least he still lives and still hopes,

as this billet sufficiently proves."
And the speaker, no other than Colonel Geraldine, proffered a

letter, thus conceived:-
"Major Hammersmith, - On Wednesday, at 3 A.M., you will be admitted

by the small door to the gardens of Rochester House, Regent's Park,
by a man who is entirely in my interest. I must request you not to

fail me by a second. Pray bring my case of swords, and, if you can
find them, one or two gentlemen of conduct and discretion to whom

my person is unknown. My name must not be used in this affair.
T. GODALL."

"From his wisdom alone, if he had no other title," pursued Colonel
Geraldine, when the others had each satisfied his curiosity, "my

friend is a man whose directions should implicitly be followed. I
need not tell you, therefore, that I have not so much as visited

the neighbourhood of Rochester House; and that I am still as wholly
in the dark as either of yourselves as to the nature of my friend's

dilemma. I betook myself, as soon as I had received this order, to
a furnishing contractor, and, in a few hours, the house in which we

now are had assumed its late air of festival. My scheme was at
least original; and I am far from regretting an action which has

procured me the services of Major O'Rooke and Lieutenant
Brackenbury Rich. But the servants in the street will have a

strange awakening. The house which this evening was full of lights
and visitors they will find uninhabited and for sale to-morrow

morning. Thus even the most serious concerns," added the Colonel,
"have a merry side."

"And let us add a merry ending," said Brackenbury.
The Colonel consulted his watch.

"It is now hard on two," he said. "We have an hour before us, and
a swift cab is at the door. Tell me if I may count upon your

help."
"During a long life," replied Major O'Rooke, "I never took back my

hand from anything, nor so much as hedged a bet."
Brackenbury signified his readiness in the most becoming terms; and

after they had drunk a glass or two of wine, the Colonel gave each
of them a loaded revolver, and the three mounted into the cab and

drove off for the address in question.
Rochester House was a magnificentresidence on the banks of the

canal. The large extent of the garden isolated it in an unusual
degree from the annoyances of neighbourhood. It seemed the PARC

AUX CERFS of some great nobleman or millionaire. As far as could
be seen from the street, there was not a glimmer of light in any of

the numerous windows of the mansion; and the place had a look of
neglect, as though the master had been long from home.

The cab was discharged, and the three gentlemen were not long in
discovering the small door, which was a sort of postern in a lane

between two garden walls. It still wanted ten or fifteen minutes
of the appointed time; the rain fell heavily, and the adventurers

sheltered themselves below some pendant ivy, and spoke in low tones
of the approaching trial.

Suddenly Geraldine raised his finger to command silence, and all
three bent their hearing to the utmost. Through the continuous

noise of the rain, the steps and voices of two men became audible
from the other side of the wall; and, as they drew nearer,

Brackenbury, whose sense of hearing was remarkably acute, could
even distinguish some fragments of their talk.