At this, moved by some impulse, I jumped to the floor. There was a narrow poker leaning against the empty fireplace. Shaking with fear, I picked it up and fell into the position of defence. The big man's laughter changed to an impatient tone.
"Rout him out, the impudent rascal," he said, "and I'll boot him down the stairway!"
The Captain could not reach me across the bed, so he came about the foot-board. He made a quick pass at me as if he would give me a good slap with the back of his sword. I parried it, and aiming a quick stroke at his head, I sent his cocked hat flying across the room. His return to this showed that he intended me some harm, for he lunged straight at my breast. Again I parried, and a second time the Captain lunged. He had gotten the point of his sword a little too far down this time, and I got over it a bit with the poker. I remembered the disarming-stroke that my uncle had shown me so often. With a quick turn of the wrist I caught his blade aright and absolutely hurled it from his hand. It clattered across the floor, and lunging forward, I caught him just below the shoulder with the point of the poker. Had it been a cutlass or a small sword, it would have surely run him through! As it was it staggered him, and he sat down backwards in the empty fireplace.
The big man was roaring down the hallway for help, and I could hear a charge being made up the stairs. The Captain looked up at me, however, curiously.
"Where on the big green earth did you learn that?" he said.
I was so full of emotion and fear of the consequence of my action that I could not speak, and stood there panting. A dozen faces had appeared at the doorway. The Captain extended his hand.
"Give us a lift, lad," he said. "I'm badly grounded."
I pulled him out of the fireplace, and a strange picture we must have presented, I in my shirt, and he slapping me good-naturedly between the shoulders so hard that it set me coughing.
"No harm done, friends," he said, addressing the crowd, that had now half filled the room. "Some pleasantry between me and this young gentleman. Bullard, you old squillgee, gather the lad's trousseau from the hall, and fetch it in here."
Affirming that it was just a joke, he and the Captain cleared the room and gathered up my things. The short man was looking at me curiously.