"In the same sense in which you are a military man." (_Homme de guerre_.) It was then that I heard Captain Blunt produce one of his striking declarations.

He had two of them, and this was the first.
"I live by my sword." It was said in an extraordinary dandified manner which in conjunction with the matter made me forget my tongue in my head.

I could only stare at him.

He added more naturally: "2nd Reg.

Castille, Cavalry." Then with marked stress in Spanish, "_En las filas legitimas_." Mills was heard, unmoved, like Jove in his cloud: "He's on leave here." "Of course I don't shout that fact on the housetops," the Captain addressed me pointedly, "any more than our friend his shipwreck adventure.