* It being one of the many peculiar features of Jacks upbringing that (1) he had a perpetual sparring partner (Bob)perpetual in the sense that they slept in the same bed at night and, as brothers do, fought all dayagainst whom he was evenly matched, and (2) at the age when every boy engages in mock sword-fight, he and Bob happened to suddenly find themselves living in a military barracks, where their duels served as free entertainment for large numbers of men who actually did know a few things about fighting with swords, and who found the entertainment lacking if it was not well played, both in a technical sense (blows had to be delivered and parried in some way that was realistic to their discerning eyes) and in a dramatic sense (extra points scored, and extra food thrown in their direction, for enhancements such as hanging by the knees from joists and fighting upside-down, swinging like apes from ropes, etc.). The result being that from a young age the Shaftoe boys had sword-fighting abilities considerably above their station in life (most people like them never came into contact with a sword at all, unless it was with the edge of the blade in the last instant of their life), but limited to the type of sword called the spadroona cut-andthrust weaponwhich, theyd been warned, might not be very effective against Gentlemen armed with long slender poky rapiers and trained to insert them deftly through narrow gaps in ones defenses. The Janissary-blade was a rough Mahometan equivalent of a spadroon, therefore, ideally matched to Jacks style, or Bobs for that matter. He waved it around dramatically.