| Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed. Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the text. The footnotes follow the text. Chapter I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII (etext transcriber's note) |
THE DUEL
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Alexander Kuprin was born in 1870. He passed through the Cadet Schooland Military College at Moscow, entered the Army as lieutenant in 1890,and resigned after seven years to devote himself to literature.
THE DUEL
By A. KUPRIN
LONDON:
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.
First published in 1916
[An abridged version was published under the title
“In Honour’s Name” in 1907]
(All rights reserved)
THE DUEL
I
THE 6th Company’s afternoon drill was nearly over, and the juniorofficers looked with increasing frequency at their watches, and withgrowing impatience. The rank and file of the new regiment were beinginstructed in garrison duty. Along the whole of the extensiveparade-ground the soldiers stood in scattered groups: by the poplarsthat bordered the causeway, by the gymnastic apparatus, by the door ofthe company’s school, and in the neighbourhood of the butts. All theseplaces were to represent during the drill the most important buildingsin the garrison—the commander’s residence, the headquarters, the powdermagazine, the administration depar