When this was done the voice added: "Now you can go to the stables and wait there till I call you." It was the innkeeper.

He surveyed me for a moment and scratched his chin.
"Will Herr keep perfectly quiet if I take the handkerchief from his mouth ?" he asked.
I nodded, bewildered.
"What in tophet does this mean ?" I gasped.

I did not say tophet, but it looks better in writing.
"It means nothing and everything," was the answer.

"In the first place, Herr will fight no duel.

The man with whom you were to fight was sent on an errand to this out-of-the-way place as a punishment for dueling at the capital.