Changing the Pushkin Affair

Long time ago when Hitler and Stalin were not alive and J23 was not able to save the world, Dr. Who saved two men from committing a grave mistake.....

          On the frosty morning of 8th January 1837 Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was reading a paper while waiting for his opponent Georges d'Anthès. It was a truth universally acknowledged, that a married man in possession of good reputation, must be in want of preserving it. He didn't know that at this moment a man with a sonic screwdriver was immobilizing his servants and locking all the doors in the estate. 

         Suddenly, Alexander heard the tramp of horses' hooves and run to the door to prepare his gun, only to realize that he was locked. He started knocking and shouting furiously, but the only voice he heard was Georges d'Anthès, urging him to come and fight.  

         Finally, the impatient Frenchmen broke into the house by shooting through every lock in the door he came across as he was striding led by Alexander's desperate voice. Lastly, wasting the last bullet, he managed to get into the Pushkin's room.

"Sir, why did your servants locked all the doors?",  asked breathless Frenchman.

"I have no idea why they did it", answered the Russian.

"Sir, are you ready to duel?"

"Well, of course I am. Let me just take my...", only then did he realise that the pair of pistols that he had prepared were missing. 

"I'm sorry Sir, but, do you, perhaps, have a spare gun?", asked Pushkin.

"I'm very sorry, I don't. My other pistol and the powder gone missing and I wasted all bullets to get here", answered d'Anthès.

"Then, how shall we settle the matter?", asked Pushkin. This whole situation seemed to him hopeless and he wanted to bring it an end in order not to make the matters worse.  

Georges d'Anthès looked around the room as if he searched for a clue.

"Do you play?", he asked pointing at the table with the drafts prepared for a game.

"Yes. Would you like to...."

"With great pleasure!", interrupted d'Anthès enthusiastically.

         As the men sat to the play they lost the track of time playing one game after another. They could not possibly see a dark shadow in the garden nor hear the rattle of metal as he walked down the alley and disappeared in the fog. 

       Later on Pushkin wrote a poem to commemorate the event that brought the men together and let them live long and happy life, which became more famous than "Eugene Onegin".