Let us fight this evening." Syme bowed with a quite beautiful graciousness.
"Marquis," he said, "your action is worthy of your fame and blood.
Permit me to consult for a moment with the gentlemen in whose hands I shall place myself." In three long strides he rejoined his companions, and they, who had seen his champagne-inspired attack and listened to his idiotic explanations, were quite startled at the look of him.

For now that he came back to them he was quite sober, a little pale, and he spoke in a low voice of passionate practicality.
"I have done it," he said hoarsely.

"I have fixed a fight on the beast.
But look here, and listen carefully.

There is no time for talk.

You are my seconds, and everything must come from you.