ou, he goes on getting tired and more tired, and then your turn comes,
and you can thrash him."

"I see," cried Mercer.

"No, you don't; you're only getting a peep yet."

"But mustn't you ever hit with your right fist?"

"Oh yes, at proper times. Wait: I'll tell you when."

"But shall we begin fighting now?" I said eagerly.

"No, not till you know what you're going to do. Now look here, boys; I
daresay some people would teach you very differently to what I do, but
you've asked me, and I shall teach you my way. Some people let those
they teach put the gloves on and begin knocking each other about, but
that's all waste of time. I want everything you do with your right or
your left to be for some reason. Those two boys can't fight, but they
thrashed you two because I can see you swung your arms about anyhow, and
while you were coming round with one of your wind-mill swings, they hit
straight out and you had it. Do you see?"

"Not quite," I said.

"Then look here. See that round table turned up in the corner?"

"Yes."

"Suppose, then, two flies started from the edge to get to the opposite
edge, and one went round and the other right across straight, which
would get there first?"

"Oh, I know that," said Mercer, rubbing his nose with the back of his
glove; "the one that went across the diameter ever so much sooner than
the one that went half round the circumference."

"Yes," I said; "the chord is shorter than the arc."

"Never mind about your fine way of putting it," said Lomax. "I see you
understand, and that's what I mean. The enemy would diameter you while
you tried to circumference him."

The serjeant laughed at his ready adoption of our words, and we laughed
too, but he cried "'Tention!" again, and now made us stand face to face
on guard, manipulating us and walking round till he had us exactly to
his taste, when he suddenly remembered something, and, taking a piece of
chalk from his pocket, he drew a line between us, and then raised our
hands with their huge gloves to the pitch he considered correct.

"There you are, boys," he said; "that couldn't be better. Now, bear in
mind what I said; self-defence is the thing you've got to aim at, just
as a general manages his regiments and fences with them till the proper
time comes, and then he lets them go. Now, to begin with, you must be
the enemy, Master Mercer, and Master Burr here's got to thrash you."

"Oh!" cried Mercer.

"Well, your turn