nine o’clock
`` Certainly not , '' rejoined Servadac ; `` and especially in my case , when I have not the slightest intention of being wounded at all . '' Incredulous as they naturally were as to the assigned cause of the quarrel , Servadac 's friends had no alternative but to accept his explanation , and without farther parley they started for the staff office , where , at two o'clock precisely , they were to meet the seconds of Count Timascheff . Two hours later they had returned . All the preliminaries had been arranged ; the count , who like many Russians abroad was an aide-de-camp of the Czar , had of course proposed swords as the most appropriate weapons , and the duel was to take place on the following morning , the first of January , at nine o'clock , upon the cliff at a spot about a mile and a half from the mouth of the Shelif . With the assurance that they would not fail to keep their appointment with military punctuality , the two officers cordially wrung their friend 's hand and retired to the Zulma Cafe for a game at piquet . Captain Servadac at once retraced his steps and left the town . For the last fortnight Servadac had not been occupying his proper lodgings in the military quarters ; having been appointed to make a local levy , he had been living in a gourbi , or native hut , on the Mostaganem coast , between four and five miles from the Shelif .