happen. For if you demote me I will take an appeal, as is my right, to the colonel’s court;
and there I will prove that you are stupid, inefficient, cowardly, and unfit generally to
command. You really are, and you know it. Your discipline is lax and full of favoritism;
your rewards and punishments are assessed, not by logic, but by whim, passion, and
personal bias. Any court that can be named would set you down into the ranks, where
you belong, and would give me your place. If this is insubordination and if you want to
make something out of it, you pussy-gutted, pusillanimous, brainless tub of lard, cut in
your jets!”
The maligned officer half-rose, white-knuckled hands gripping the arms of his
chair, then sank back craftily. He realized now that he had blundered; he was in no
position to face the rigorous investigation which Gannel’s accusation would bring on.
But there was a way out. This could now be made a purely personal matter, in which a
duel would be de rigueur. And in Boskonian duelling the superior officer, not the
challenged, had the choice of weapons. He was a master of the saber; he had out-
pointed Gannel regularly in the regimental games. Therefore he choked down his wrath
and:
“These personal insults, gratuitous and false as they are, make it a matter of
honor,” he declared smoothly. “Meet me, then, tomorrow, half an hour before sunset, in
the Place of Swords. It will be sabers.”
“Accepted,” Kinnison meticulously followed the ritual. ‘To first blood or to the
death?” This question was superfluous —the stigma of the Lensman’s epithets,
delivered before such a large group, could not possibly be expunged by the mere letting
of a little blood.
“To the death,” curtly.
“So be it, Oh captain!” Kinnison saluted punctiliously, executed a snappy about-
face, and marched stiffly out of the room.
QX. This was fine—strictly according to Hoyle. The captain was a swordsman, of
course; but Kinnison was no slouch. He didn’t think he’d have to use a thought-beam to
help him. He had had five years of intensive training. Quarter-staff, night-stick, club,
knife, and dagger; foil, epee, rapier, saber, broadsword, scimitar, bayonet, what-have-
you—with practically any nameable weapon any Lensman had to be as good as be was
with fists and feet.
The Place of Swords was in fact a circular arena, surrounded by tiers of
comfortably-padded seats. It was thronged with uniforms, with civilian formal afternoon
dress, and with modish gowns; for such duels as this were sporting events of the first
magnitude.
To guard against such trickery as concealed armor, the contestants were almost
naked. Each wore only silken trunks and a pair of low shoes, whose cross-ribbed,
flexible composition soles could not be made to slip upon the corrugated surface of the
cork-like material of the arena’s floor.
The colonel himself, as master of ceremonies, asked the usual perfunctory
questions. No, reconciliation was impossible. No, the challenged would not apologize.
No, the challenger’s honor could not be satisfied with anything less than mortal combat.
He then took two sabers from an orderly, measuring them to be sure that they were of
precisely the same length. He tested each edge for keenness, from hilt to needle point,
with an expert thumb. He pounded each hilt with a heavy testing club. Lastly, still in view
of the spectators, he slipped a guard over each point and put his weight upon the
blades. They bent alarmingly, but neither broke and both snapped back truly into shape.
No spy or agent, everyone then knew, had tampered with either one of those beautiful
weapons.
Removing the point-guards, the colonel again inspected those slenderly lethal
tips and handed one saber to each of the duelists. He held out a baton, horizontal and
shoulder-high. Gannel and the captain crossed their blades upon it. He snapped his
stick away and the duel was on.
Kinnison fought in Gannel’s fashion exactly; in his characteristic crouch and with
his every mannerism. He was, however, the merest trifle faster than Gannel had ever
been —just enough faster so that by the exertion of everything he had of skill and
finesse, he managed to make the zwilnik’s blade meet steel instead of flesh during the
first long five minutes of furious engagement. The guy was good, no doubt of that. His
saber came writhing in, to disarm. Kinnison flicked his massive wrist. Steel slithered
along steel; hilt clanged against heavy basket hilt. Two mighty right arms shot upward,
straining to the limit. Breast to hard-ridged breast, left arms pressed against bulgingly-
corded backs, every taut muscle from floor-gripping feet up to powerful shoulders
thrown into the effort, the battlers stood motionlessly en tableau for seconds.
The ape wasn’t fat, at that, Kinnison realized then; he was as hard as cord-wood
underneath. Not fat enough, anyway, to be anybody’s push-over; although he was
probably not in good enough shape to last very long—he could probably wear him
down. He wondered fleetingly, if worst came to worst, whether he would use his mind or
not. He didn’t want to . . . but he might have to. Or would he, even then—could he? But
he’d better snap out of it. He couldn’t get anywhere with this body-check business; the
zwilnik was just about as strong as he was.
They broke, and in the breaking Kinnison learned a brand new cut. He sensed it
coming, but he could not parry or avoid it entirely; and the crowd shrieked wildly as the
captain’s point slashed into Cancel’s trunks and a stream of crimson trickled down
Gannel’s left leg.
Stamp! Stamp! Cut, thrust, feint, slash and parry, the grim game went on. Again,
in spite of all he could do, Kinnison was pinked; this time by a straight thrust aimed at
his heart. He was falling away from it, though, so got only half an inch or so of the point
in the fleshy part of his left shoulder. It bled spectacularly, however, and the throng
yelled ragingly for the kill. Another—he never did know exactly how he got that one—in
the calf of his right leg; and the bloodthirsty mob screamed still louder.
Then, the fine edge of the captain’s terrific attack worn off, Kinnison was able to
assume the offensive. He maneuvered his foe into an awkward position, swept his
blade aside, and slashed viciously at the neck. But the Thralian was able partially to
cover. He ducked frantically, even while his parrying blade was flashing up. Steel
clanged, sparks flew, but the strength of the Lensman’s arm could not be entirely
denied. Instead of the whole head, however, Kinnison’s razor-edged weapon snicked off
only an ear and a lock of hair.
Again the spectators shrieked frenzied approval. They did not care whose blood
was shed, so long as it was shed; and this duel, of two superb swordsmen so evenly
matched, was the best they had seen for years. It was, and promised to keep on being,
a splendidly gory show indeed.
Again and again the duelists engaged at their flashing top speed; once again
each drew blood before the colonel’s whistle shrilled.
Time out for repairs: to have either of the contestants bleed to death, or even to
the point of weakness, was no part of the code. The captain had out-pointed the
lieutenant, four to two, just as he always did in the tournaments; but he now derived
very little comfort from the score. He was weakening, while Gannel seemed as strong
and fast as at the bout’s beginning.
Surgeons gave hasty but effective treatment, new and perfect sabers replaced
the nicked weapons, the ghastly thing went on. The captain tired slowly but surely;
Gannel took, more and more openly and more and more savagely, the offensive.
When it was over Kinnison flipped his saber dexterously, so that its point struck
deep into the softly resilient floor beside that which had once been his captain. Then,
while the hilt swung back and forth in slow arcs, he faced one segment of the now
satiated throng and crisply saluted the colonel.
“Sir, I trust that I have won honorably the right to be examined for fitness to
become the captain of my company?” he asked, formally; and:
“You have, sir,” the colonel as formally replied.
CHAPTER 17
Into Nth Space
Kinnison’s wounds, being superficial, healed rapidly. He passed the examination
handily. He should have; since, although it was rigorous and comprehensive, Traska
Gannel himself could have passed and Kinnison, as well as knowing practically
everything that the Thralian had ever learned, had his own vast store of knowledge
upon which to draw. Also, if necessary, he could have read the answers from the minds
of the examiners.
As a captain, the real Gannel would have been a hard and brilliant commander,
noticeable even among the select group of tried and fire-polished veterans who
officered the Guards. Hence Kinnison became so; in fact, considerably more so than