Ole Devil at San Jacinto (Old Devil Hardin Western Book 4) (9 page)

‘
Attention!’ Hallistead
barked, then paused to see whether
either participant wished to raise an
objection.

To Dumoulin, it seemed that time was
standing still.

Staring at the tall, slender and
menacing figure, so near yet somehow so far away, he was filled
with a sense of foreboding. The Texian’s tanned face was so much
like the portraits he had seen of the Devil that it was even more
unnerving. Only by exercising all his
willpower did the youngster control his
urge to throw down his weapon and run.

Satisfied that the duelists were
ready, Hallistead continued with the ritual. Sometimes a Director
of the Duel would hurry his count with the intention of confusing
the adversaries and lessening the chances of either fatally
injuring the other by taking a long and careful aim. But the
entertainer did not hurry. Instead, as he had warned when giving
the instructions, he continued to speak at the
speed
—equivalent to one hundred words a minute—proscribed by
convention.

‘
F
eu!—Un!—Deux!—Trois
!’

At the first word, acting on the signal to
commence, Dumoulin and Ole Devil began to raise their right arms.
Instantly, the differences between their frame of mind and
respective ability became obvious.

Where the Texian was elevating his pistol
with a smoothly flowing motion, the youngster’s weapon came up in
an almost spasmodic jerk.

Before Dumoulin could take any kind of aim,
in fact only chance was causing the barrel to point in Ole Devil’s
direction, his right forefinger twitched involuntarily. Slight as
the gesture was, it proved sufficient to operate the light pull of
the trigger. To his horror, he saw the hammer begin to snap
forward.

There was a sharp crack as the pistol’s
firing charge was detonated!

Gushing from the muzzle, the whitish gases
of the burned powder obscured Dumoulin’s target. In spite of that,
his every instinct warned him that he could not have made a
hit.

An instant later, as the cloud drifted away,
the youngster found that his supposition was correct!

Dumoulin realized that nothing could save
him from the Mephistophelian-featured Texian’s response.

Nor was a man of Ole Devil Hardin’s ability
likely to miss!

No spurt of smoke and flame erupted from the
muzzle of the Texian’s pistol as a warning that a swiftly flying
portion of lead had already been emitted.

Instead, showing not the slightest concern
over having a bullet pass by very close to his head, Ole Devil
continued to swing the pistol around until it was held behind his
back.

‘
J’ai
oubli
e!’
the Texian announced and repeated it in English, ‘I have
forgotten.’

For a moment, Dumoulin was numbed by a
mixture of amazement and relief. At first, he could not appreciate
what was happening. Then an understanding flooded through him. It
was followed by a feeling of gratitude towards his adversary. By
acting in such a manner, Captain Hardin was offering a way by which
the duel could be brought to an end without the need for any
further exchange of shots. What was more, the youngster knew that
he could now withdraw with honor.

In the hope of preventing
frivolous and trivial challenges and to make opponents realize that
a duel was a matter of life and death, every convention, and the
Clonmel Code in particular, prohibited deliberately firing to miss
an adversary.
^xviii
It did happen, of course, but there
was a more dignified and honorable means if one had no desire to
injure one’s opponent. By placing the pistol behind the back and
declaring,
‘J’ai oublie,’
the duelist displayed his intentions in a manner
which left no doubt as to their interpretation.

‘
Wh
—!’ Pierre-Quint gasped, watching Ole Devil hand the
discharged pistol to Tommy Okasi and retrieve his own weapons.
‘What—?’

‘
Shots have been exchanged,’
Hallistead answered, and there was just a hint of relief in his
voice. ‘Honor is now satisfied and the affair is over.’

‘
Over?’ the
Creole
yelped, but the
entertainer was already walking away. So, scowling furiously, he
strode towards Dumoulin and Jaloux.

By the time Hallistead joined his
companions, Ole Devil had sheathed the bowie knife and was
returning the pistol to its loop on the belt.

‘
You handled that with the
kind of foresight and acumen which I expected of you, if I may so
say, sir,’ the entertainer praised. ‘However, the
gentlemen
from New Orleans may
not be in concurrence.’

‘
They’d better be,’ Ole
Devil growled, glancing to where the
Creoles
were talking, gesticulating to their
principal. ‘I’m in no mood to go on with this damned
farce.’

‘
Could I
suggest we make it appear that we are taking our departure?’
Hallistead asked. ‘That should provoke them into declaring their
intentions.’

‘
Let’s do that,’ Ole Devil agreed and
the entertainer felt he would rather not be in the other party’s
shoes if they did raise any objections.

‘
Hey there!’ Pierre-Quint
shouted, seeing the three men turning as if meaning to leave the
hollow. Stalking forward with Jaloux at his side, they were
followed by Dumoulin who was still carrying the empty pistol. ‘We
haven’t finished
yet. There must be another shot.’

‘
Like hell there must!’
Ole Devil spinning around and stepping away from his companions.
Such was the concentrated venom in his voice as he confronted the
approaching trio that they came to a halt. ‘It’s over!
Finished!
Done
!’

‘
That isn’t for you to say,’ Jaloux
protested. ‘Your seconds — !’

‘
Listen to me, damn you!’
the Texian commanded, his face as malevolent as that of his
namesake when condemning a sinner to eternal torment. Glancing past
the two older
Creoles
and he continued in a more gentle fashion, ‘What I’m going
to say doesn’t include you,
M’sieur
Dumoulin. You have conducted yourself with courage
and credit throughout this whole unfortunate affair. I trust that
you will agree that our difficulties have been settled honorably
and we no longer have any quarrel?’

‘
I
do, sir,’ the
youngster affirmed, showing a greater enthusiasm than had been in
evidence up to that point.

‘
You
can’t
—!’ Pierre-Quint commenced, looking around.

‘
The hell he can’t!’ Ole
Devil put in, bringing the
Creole’s
attention back to him. ‘I’ve played along
with your damned charade as far as I intend to. We’re engaged in a
war with a bloodthirsty, malevolent tyrant and have neither the
time nor the need for dissension in our ranks. So I’m warning you
that the next man who comes to challenge me, whether it is one of
you six or your regiment’s
fencing master,
he’d better be holding a weapon, because
I’ll kill him where he stands without bothering with any
formalities.’

Nobody listening to the quietly spoken, yet
impassioned words could doubt that the speaker meant exactly what
he said. However, Pierre-Quint and Jaloux had an added reason to
take notice of the statement. They realized from the way in which
the Texian emphasized his reference to their regiment’s fencing
master that he had something specific in mind and they drew the
correct conclusions over what it might be.

‘
He knows, Marcel!’ Jaloux
screeched, reaching for Dumoulin’s pistol which he had pushed into
his belt when it was handed to him.
‘Defend yourself!’
^xix

Standing slightly to one side
and behind Ole Devil Hardin, Tommy Okasi realized that something
must be done
—and quickly—to bring an end to Lieutenant Gerard Jaloux’s
stupidly ill-advised behavior before he paid a high price for his
folly. The little Oriental also considered that he was the member
of his party best suited to bring this about. As their acquaintance
had only been brief, he did not know whether Mangrove Hallistead
was capable of handling the situation. However, one thing of which
he was certain was that his employer was not at that moment in a
mood to suffer fools gladly and might respond in a regrettable
manner. So Tommy decided to act on his own initiative. Regardless
of his small size, he was eminently qualified to do so.

Although Jaloux and Lieutenant
Marcel Pierre-Quint had pretended to accept that Tommy was socially
eligible as the Texian’s second in the duel, the acquiescence had
been to serve their personal purposes. Neither of them had believed
the entertainer’s explanation about the little Oriental’s status as
a member of the Japanese lower nobility
—which was perfectly true—or that he
was a competent warrior in his own right.

The
Creoles
were to be given a
very
convincing proof of the latter
point!

One of the
Samurais’
most remarkable and impressive
martial accomplishments was
laijitsu,
the swift withdrawal of the
daisho’s
longer,
tachi
sword.
^xx
With the possible exception of an
Ancient Roman legionary’s ability to pull out his
gladius,
it was a feat
unequalled by the swordsmen of the Western Hemisphere. In fact,
similar heights of rapidity would only be attained when, during the
late 1860s, the gunfighters of the Old West began to experiment
with the possibilities of drawing and shooting a revolver—which was
not much longer than the
hilt
of a
tachi—
at speed.
^xxi
Nor would such methods achieve their
full potential until the arrival of techniques developed by
Twentieth Century combat shooting experts who employed even more
compact weapons and sophisticated equipment.
^xxii

Certainly there was nothing in Texas, or the
United States for that matter, in the 1830s which might have served
as a warning to Jaloux and Pierre-Quint of what was to come.

Bounding past Ole Devil and
Hallistead, giving neither of them an opportunity to take any
action, the little Oriental sent his right hand flashing to the
hilt of the
tachi.
Before he alighted in front of the two young dandies, brief
as the movement had been, he had already slid the thirty inch long
blade from its sheath. Still moving with the same remarkable speed,
giving the spiritual cry of
‘Kiai!’
he swung the naked weapon in a smooth and graceful
arc towards Jaloux.

Before the amazed
Creole
could even grasp the
butt of the pistol, much less pluck it from his belt, he saw the
shining and obviously exceptionally sharp blade approaching as if
his right arm was a magnet attracting the steel. Instinctively, if
involuntarily, he snatched the threatened limb clear of the
danger.

Having prevented Jaloux from
drawing the weapon, Tommy treated him, Pierre-Quint, Hallistead and
Lieutenant Alphonse Jules Dumoulin to a masterful exhibition of
sword handling in the Japanese fashion. He also drove all thoughts
of further aggression from Jaloux’s and Pierre-Quint’s heads. Even
Ole Devil, who had frequently watched the small Oriental practicing
with the
tachi,
was impressed with the display.

Around and around, back and
forth, up and down darted the long and
—to Occidental eyes—strangely shaped
sword. For all its relatively cumbersome appearance, Tommy made
thrusts or cuts with the facility of an
epee-de-combat
or saber, but without making
contact on either of the startled young
Creoles.
Although neither was as much as
scratched in passing, each was all too aware of just how slender a
margin they were being missed by. Fortunately for them, surprise at
the transformation of one whom they had previously dismissed as no
more than a harmless servant froze them into immobility.

Sometimes the
tachi
was held in one
hand, then it would be grasped in both. Either way, nothing
interfered with the rapid flowing motions of the razor sharp blade
that had a pliancy and strength all but unequalled in the Western
Hemisphere. As the weapon moved, almost of its own volition, Tommy
heightened the effect by bobbing, weaving, advancing and
retreating, but always judging his distance to a fraction of an
inch to avoid injuring the now thoroughly alarmed and frightened
young men.

For a good two minutes, although
it seemed
far
longer to the
Creoles
and the onlookers, the little Oriental kept up the
demonstration. Then, giving another yell, he pivoted around. On
returning to face the pair, he cut left and upwards, then back at a
downwards angle to the right in quick succession. A sliver of
material was sliced from the crown of Jaloux’s ‘planter’s’ hat,
without it being knocked from his head. A moment later, its knot
severed, the sling that had supported Pierre-Quint’s dislocated
right shoulder fell away. Gasps of amazement burst from the
watchers, Tommy returned the
tachi
to its sheath as swiftly as he had removed
it.