At The End
Of Five Minutes From The Beginning Of The Duel The Surgeon
Stopped It; The Challenging Party Had Suffered Such
Injuries That Any Addition To Them Might Be Dangerous.
These Injuries Were A Fearful Spectacle, But Are Better
Left Undescribed.
So, against expectation, my acquaintance
was the victor.
CHAPTER VI
[A Sport that Sometimes Kills]
The third duel was brief and bloody. The surgeon stopped
it when he saw that one of the men had received such bad
wounds that he could not fight longer without endangering
his life.
The fourth duel was a tremendous encounter; but at the end
of five or six minutes the surgeon interfered once more:
another man so severely hurt as to render it unsafe to add
to his harms. I watched this engagement as I watched
the others - with rapt interest and strong excitement,
and with a shrink and a shudder for every blow that laid
open a cheek or a forehead; and a conscious paling of my
face when I occasionally saw a wound of a yet more shocking
nature inflicted. My eyes were upon the loser of this
duel when he got his last and vanquishing wound - it
was in his face and it carried away his - but no matter,
I must not enter into details. I had but a glance, and then
turned quickly, but I would not have been looking at all if I
had known what was coming. No, that is probably not true;
one thinks he would not look if he knew what was coming,
but the interest and the excitement are so powerful that
they would doubtless conquer all other feelings; and so,
under the fierce exhilaration of the clashing steel,
he would yield and look after all.
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