"Yes, confound them!"
"I don't see why you want a sword at all," Dolly chipped in. "Captain Jones says the big guns are the only weapons that count."
"And how will Archie toast his crumpets?" retorted Henry.
"Oh, shut up, you kids! I say, do you mind having a look at it?" The latest subaltern was actually appealing to me. I stifled a blush, and thought I should like to, very much.
After breakfast Archibald and myself retired to the armoury.
"There!" he exclaimed indignantly. "What do you think of that?" It was lying on the bed with a black-and-gold hilt and a wonderful nickel scabbard with gilt blobs at the top. I looked at it.
"Well," I ventured, "it's a sword."
Archibald sniffed.
"And," I continued hastily, "it's very nice. Perhaps they've run out of the ordinary ones. Does it cut?"
He drew it, and I, assuming the air of a barber's assistant, felt its edge.