Besides if he ever _did_ see an Italian rapier--and there's scarcely such a thing in India--he'd not get the chance to use it as a copy.

Fancy his having the desire and the power to, anyhow!" "I give it up, Sir," said Nurse Beaton.
"I give it upper," added the Major, taking the object of their wonder from the child.
And there was cause for wonder indeed.
A hole had been punched through the centre of the lid of a tobacco tin and a number of others round the edge.

Through the centre hole the steel rod had been passed so that the tin made a "guard".

To the other holes wires had been fastened by bending, and their ends gathered, twisted, and bound with string to the top of the handle (of bored corks) to form an ornamental basket-hilt.
But the most remarkable thing of all was that, before doing this, the juvenile designer had passed the rod through a piece of bored stick so that the latter formed a _cross-piece_ (neatly bound) within the tin guard--the distinctive feature of the ancient and modern Italian rapiers! Round this cross-piece the first two fingers of the boy's right hand were crooked as he held the sword--and this is the one and only correct way of holding the Italian weapon, as the Major was well aware! "I give it most utterly-uppermost," he murmured.

"It's positively uncanny.