Argosy, Vol. 122, No. 1 — page 122: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

112 Both, however, were on a par in other re- spects; equally avaricious, equally lustful, equally ready to commit any crime that would promote their interests. The mixture of Barbanera with Zorrilla blood had pro- duced a decidedly villainous strain. Gaillard considered the man left to guard him. The bearded José appeared to be meditating matters of exceeding solemnity. ‘Tt has come to my ears that you claim to be something more than a tyro with foils,” Louis Gaillard remarked, in an effort to discover what this Barbanera’s weakness might be. ‘“T’m expert both with foils and swords,” the other answered with complacence. ‘‘In your own opinion, or in that of other men?” ’ Barbanera bent his gloomy eyes upon the speaker with an expression of contempt. ‘It’s not necessary for me to boast of my skill,” he stated, “ but I'll say that on one or two occasions men have undertaken to question my ability with a naked blade, and they ceased to live. Yes, I’m a master of fence.” Gaillard permitted himself an incredulous laugh. : ‘““Against much clumsy opponents as you’ve met, perhaps. I’ve heard there were no good swordsmen in Cuba, however. It’s natural for one who has conquered a few amateurs to come to have an exaggerated opinion of one’s own powers, until a real swordsman is encountered.” ‘What do you know of swords, you who live here?” ‘“ Always enough and to spare in order to defeat a Zorrilla.” . “Tm not a Zorrilla, though be it ad- mitted Zorrilla blood. flows in my veins; I’m a Barbanera, which is a different matter when it comes to fencing. You speak of my only having defeated amateurs. Know, sir, that I’ve bested some of the finest © fencers of Spain when they came visiting to Havana, and these, as is generally recog- nized, are the choicest in Europe, which in turn means the best in the world. There- fore, I rank among the few superior swords- men in the world to-day. 1 say so; my. friends say so; all who know me say so. Hence, it is true.” THE ARGOSY. Clearly the man’s vanity centered in his skill at blades. Gaillard had suspected it; he trusted to play upon it and find in this possibly a door of escape. It was most probable that the man was a swordsman and a good one; he possessed a quick eye, a great reach, and a hand and wrist of steel. Of his strength, enormous, animal-like, Louis had had convincing evi- dence when he found himself in the Cu- ban’s grasp. Doubtless, too, he uttered the truth when he announced that he had sum- marily disposed of rivals in fights. He was of the type of men who, two or three centuries before, were met with on the Continent — Frenchmen, Englishmen, Italians, Spaniards—and who, using this particular weapon with unusual proficiency, lived by the arm, sold their services to the highest bidder, rid their employers of ene- mies, and generally inspired fear. But without underrating the man’s pos- sible dexterity at sword-play, Gaillard asked nothing more than to meet him in such a contest if he could gain his liberty. For the Gaillards had ever taken to the sword. It was a tradition in the family, and an inheritance, so to speak. The. race had a peculiar genius for fencing. When it went out of fashion, and, indeed, for most people became obsolete, the Gail- lards continued to practise the art, from generation to generation, father teaching son, so that all the original love of the blade was preserved, and all the early skill, and with this an accumulation of three cen- turies’ study of methods, of curious and obscure strokes, and of innumerable secret modes of attack. Louis ‘Gaillard had fenced in London, in Paris, in Rome, and in Vienna; and there had been few who could hold him even, and none to defeat him. _ But this was not known. He made no boast of it, and, except one or two French maitres de fence in New York with whom he was wont to exercise when in the city, none was aware, of his extraordinary mas- tery in this particular line, not even the’ Zorrillas, though they had knowledge in a degree of the common Gaillard forte. By arousing in José Barbdnera a jealousy for his skill the man might be inveigled into cComiclbooks.com