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Off on a Comet
OFF ON A COMET OR HECTOR SERVADAC
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I. A CHALLENGE
“Nothing, sir, can induce me to surrender my claim.”
“I am sorry, count, but in such a matter your views cannot modify mine.”
“But allow me to point out that my seniority unquestionably gives me a
prior right.”
“Mere seniority, I assert, in an affair of this kind, cannot possibly
entitle you to any prior claim whatever.”
“Then, captain, no alternative is left but for me to compel you to yield
at the sword’s point.”
“As you please, count; but neither sword nor pistol can force me to
forego my pretensions. Here is my card.”
“And mine.”
This rapid altercation was thus brought to an end by the formal
interchange of the names of the disputants. On one of the cards was
inscribed:
Captain Hector Servadac,
Staff Officer, Mostaganem.
On the other was the title:
Count Wassili Timascheff,
On board the Schooner “Dobryna.”
It did not take long to arrange that seconds should be appointed, who
would meet in Mostaganem at two o’clock that day; and the captain and
the count were on the point of parting from each other, with a salute of
punctilious courtesy, when Timascheff, as if struck by a sudden thought,
said abruptly: “Perhaps it would be better, captain, not to allow the
real cause of this to transpire?”