folks have suffered a lot from you,
Captain," MacHenery said. "Think maybe they're due to see a little
bloodshed?"

"OK by me," Winfree said, panting, "if you don't mind shedding it." He
raised his saber in salute--the only fencing-movement he'd become
proficient in--and jumped into a crouch. MacHenery closed, and the two
blades met in a clanging opening. Peggy's father, for all his handicap
of twenty years, was a fencer; Winfree, in his maiden effort as a
sabreur, used his weapon like a club. He allemanded about MacHenery, now
and then dashing in with clumsy deliveries that were always met by the
older man's blade.

Those firemen not immediately concerned with spraying the warehouse
wall mounted the racks of their truck to watch the duel. BSG-men and
-women, huddled close to the warmth of the burning building, watched
unhappily as their champion was forced to retreat before MacHenery's
technique. "He'll kill him!" Peggy shouted. She was restrained from
trying to break up the fight by two burly consumers.

* * * * *

Winfree, trying a gambit he'd seen in one of MacHenery's books but had
never before attempted, extended his saber and flew forward toward
MacHenery in a fleche. MacHenery caught Winfree's blade on his own and
tossed it aside. He brought back his own weapon to sketch a line down
the Captain's right cheek. The scratch was pink for a moment, then it
started to bleed heavily. The crowd shouted encouragement, the
BSG-troops groaned. "Keep cool, Wes," MacHenery whispered to his
opponent as they dos-a-doed back into position. "I have to make this
look fierce or they'll insist on lynching you."

"Don't make it look too good," Winfree panted. "Cover yourself--I might
hurt you out of sheer clumsiness." His chin and throat were covered with
blood, now; blood enough to satisfy the most indignant consumer. The
moment the measure was set again, Winfree lunged, trying to slip his
blade beneath MacHenery's guard to strike his arm. His foible met the
flash of the other man's forte, and his blade bounced aside like a
sprung bow.

MacHenery slammed his saber into Winfree's, spinning the weapon out of
his hand into the crowd. He lunged then, delivering his point against
Winfree's chest. Peggy, released from her captors, burst from the crowd
to throw herself against her father. "Stop it, Daddy!" she pleaded,
"please stop!"

MacHenery raised his saber in salute. "All right, Pocahontas," h