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.
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