f it, and throughout intent upon getting home his own
point on one of those counters.

Andre-Louis had been in his time a chess-player of some force, and at
chess he had excelled by virtue of his capacity for thinking ahead. That
virtue applied to fencing should all but revolutionize the art. It
was so applied already, of course, but only in an elementary and very
limited fashion, in mere feints, single, double, or triple. But even the
triple feint should be a clumsy device compared with this method upon
which he theorized.

He considered further, and the conviction grew that he held the key of a
discovery. He was impatient to put his theory to the test.

That morning he was given a pupil of some force, against whom usually
he was hard put to it to defend himself. Coming on guard, he made up his
mind to hit him on the fourth disengage, predetermining the four passes
that should lead up to it. They engaged in tierce, and Andre-Louis
led the attack by a beat and a straightening of the arm. Came the
demi-contre he expected, which he promptly countered by a thrust in
quinte; this being countered again, he reentered still lower, and being
again correctly parried, as he had calculated, he lunged swirling his
point into carte, and got home full upon his opponent's breast. The ease
of it surprised him.

They began again. This time he resolved to go in on the fifth disengage,
and in on that he went with the same ease. Then, complicating the matter
further, he decided to try the sixth, and worked out in his mind the
combination of the five preliminary engages. Yet again he succeeded as
easily as before.

The young gentleman opposed to him laughed with just a tinge of
mortification in his voice.

"I am all to pieces this morning," he said.

"You are not of your usual force," Andre-Louis politely agreed. And then
greatly daring, always to test that theory of his to the uttermost: "So
much so," he added, "that I could almost be sure of hitting you as and
when I declare."

The capable pupil looked at him with a half-sneer. "Ah, that, no," said
he.

"Let us try. On the fourth disengage I shall touch you. Allons! En
garde!"

And as he promised, so it happened.

The young gentleman who, hitherto, had held no great opinion of
Andre-Louis' swordsmanship, accounting him well enough for purposes of
practice when the master was otherwise engaged, opened wide his eyes. In
a burst of mingled generosity and intoxication, Andre-Lo