Masters caught it and clapped a hand over it.
“Tails it is,” said Masters, lifting his hand and revealing the coin to the grouped seconds. “Please make your choice.”
Hepplewhite held out the two pistols to him, death in one hand and life in the other. It was a grim moment. There was only pure chance to direct him; it called for a little effort to force his hand out.
“I’ll have this one,” he said; as he touched it the weapon seemed icy cold.
“Then now I have done what was required of me,” said Masters. “The rest is for you gentlemen to carry out.”
“Take this one, Simpson,” said Hepplewhite. “And be careful how you handle yours, Mr Hornblower. You’re a public danger.”
The man was still grinning, gloating over the fact that someone else was in mortal danger while he himself was in none. Simpson took the pistol Hepplewhite offered him and settled it into his hand; once more his eyes met Hornblower’s, but there was neither recognition nor expression in them.
“There are no distances to step out,” Danvers was saying. “One spot’s as good as another. It’s level enough here.”
“Very good,” said Hether. “Will you stand here, Mr Simpson?”
Preston beckoned to Hornblower, who walked over. It was not easy to appear brisk and unconcerned. Preston took him by the arm and stood him up in front of Simpson, almost breast to breast — close enough to smell the alcohol on his breath.
“For the last time, gentlemen,” said Masters loudly. “Cannot you be reconciled?”
There was no answer from anybody, only deep silence, during which it seemed to Hornblower that the frantic beating of his heart must be clearly audible. The silence was broken by an exclamation from Hether.
“We haven’t settled who’s to give the word!” he said. “Who’s going to?”
“Let’s ask Mr Masters to give it,” said Danvers.
Hornblower did not look round. He was looking steadfastly at the grey sky past Simpson’s right ear — somehow he could not look him in the face, and he had no idea where Simpson was looking. The end of the world as he knew it was close to him — soon there might be a bullet through his heart.
“I will do it if you are agreed, gentlemen,” he heard Masters say.
The grey sky was featureless; for this last look on the world he might as well have been blindfolded. Masters raised his voice again.
“I will say ‘one, two, three, fire’,” he announced, “with those intervals. At the last word, gentlemen, you can fire as you will. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” came Simpson’s voice, almost in Hornblower’s ear, it seemed.
“Yes,” said Hornblower. He could hear the strain in his own voice.
“One,” said Masters, and Hornblower felt at that moment the muzzle of Simpson’s pistol against his left ribs, and he raised his own.
It was in that second that he decided he could not kill Simpson even if it were in his power, and he went on lifting his pistol, forcing himself to look to see that it was pressed against the point of Simpson’s shoulder. A slight wound would suffice.
“Two,” said Masters. “Three. Fire!”
Hornblower pulled his trigger. There was a click and a spurt of smoke from the lock of his pistol. The priming had gone off but no more — his was the unloaded weapon, and he knew what it was to die. A tenth of a second later there was a click and spurt of smoke from Simpson’s pistol against his heart. Stiff and still they both stood, slow to realize what had happened.
“A miss-fire, by God!” said Danvers.
The seconds crowded round them.
“Give me those pistols!” said Masters, taking them from the weak hands that held them. “The loaded one might be hanging fire, and we don’t want it to go off now.”
“Which was the loaded one?” asked Hether, consumed with curiosity.
“That is something it is better not to know,” answered Masters, changing the two pistols rapidly from hand to hand so as to confuse everyone.
“What about a second shot?” asked Danvers, and Masters looked up straight and inflexibly at him.
“There will be no second shot,” he said. “Honour is completely satisfied. These two gentlemen have come through this ordeal extremely well. No one can now think little of Mr Simpson if he expresses his regret for the occurrence, and no one can think little of Mr Hornblower if he accepts that statement in reparation.”
Hepplewhite burst into a roar of laughter.
“Your faces!” he boomed, slapping his thigh. “You ought to see how you all look! Solemn as cows!”
“Mr Hepplewhite,” said Masters, “your behaviour is indecorous. Gentlemen, our coaches are waiting on the road, the cutter is at the jetty. And I think all of us would be the better for some breakfast; including Mr Hepplewhite.”
That should have been the end of the incident. The excited talk which had gone round the anchored squadron about the unusual duel died away in time, although everyone knew Hornblower’s name now, and not as the midshipman who was seasick in Spithead but as the man who was willing to take an even chance in cold blood. But in the Justinian herself there was other talk; whispers which were circulated forward and aft.
“Mr Hornblower has requested permission to speak to you, sir,” said Mr Clay, the first lieutenant, one morning while making his report to the captain.
“Oh, send him in when you go out,” said Keene, and sighed.
Ten minutes later a knock on his cabin door ushered in a very angry young man.
“Sir!” began Hornblower.
“I can guess what you’re going to say,” said Keene.
“Those pistols in the duel I fought with Simpson were not loaded!”
“Hepplewhite blabbed, I suppose,” said Keene.
“And it was by your orders, I understand, sir.”
“You are quite correct. I gave those orders to Mr Masters.”
“It was an unwarrantable liberty, sir!”
That was what Hornblower meant to say, but he stumbled without dignity over the polysyllables.
“Possibly it was,” said Keene patiently, rearranging, as always, the papers on his desk.
The calmness of the admission disconcerted Hornblower, who could only splutter for the next few moments.
“I saved a life for the King’s service,” went on Keene, when the spluttering died away. “A young life. No one has suffered any harm. On the other hand, both you and Simpson have had your courage amply proved. You both know you can stand fire now, and so does every one else.”
“You have touched my personal honour, sir,” said Hornblower, bringing out one of his rehearsed speeches, “for that there can only be one remedy.”
“Restrain yourself, please, Mr Hornblower.” Keene shifted himself in his chair with a wince of pain as he prepared to make a speech. “I must remind you of one salutary regulation of the Navy, to the effect that no junior officer can challenge his superior to a duel. The reasons for it are obvious — otherwise promotion would be too easy. The mere issuing of a challenge by a junior to a senior is a court-martial offence, Mr Hornblower.”
“Oh!” said Hornblower feebly.
“Now here is some gratuitous advice,” went on Keene. “You have fought one duel and emerged with honour. That is good. Never fight another — that is better. Some people, oddly enough, acquire a taste for duelling, as a tiger acquires a taste for blood. They are never good officers, and never popular ones either.”
It was then that Hornblower realized that a great part of the keen excitement with which he had entered the captain’s cabin was due to anticipation of the giving of the challenge. There could be a morbid desire for danger — and a morbid desire to occupy momentarily the centre of the stage. Keene was waiting for him to speak, and it was hard to say anything.
“I understand, sir,” he said at last.
Keene shifted in his chair again.
“There is another matter I wanted to take up with you, Mr Hornblower. Captain Pellew of the Indefatigable has room for another midshipman. Captain Pellew is partial to a game of whist, and has no good fourth on board. He and I have agreed to consider favourably your application for a transfer should you care to make one. I don’t have to point out that any ambitious young officer would jump at the chance of serving in a frigate.”