I don't think I didn't, pwaps." "But hang it all, the thing's an Italian rapier, by Gad.

Some one _must_ have shown you how to make the thing, or you've got a picture.
It's a _pukka_[5] mediaeval rapier." "No it'th not.

It'th my thword.

I made it....

Have a jolly fight"-- and the boy struck an extraordinarily correct fencing attitude--left hand raised in balance, sword poised, legs and feet well placed, the whole pose easy, natural, graceful.
Curiously enough, the sword was held horizontal instead of pointing upward, a fact which at once struck the observant and practised eye of Major John Decies, sometime champion fencer.
"Who's been teaching you fencing ?" he asked.
"What ith 'fenthing'?
Let'th have a fight," replied the boy.
"Stick me here, Dam," invited the Major, seating himself and indicating the position of the heart.