Already, perhaps, they were on their way, and he husbanded his strength against their coming.

He was proudly conscious of his own superior skill, for he had studied the art of fence in Italy--its home--during his earlier years, and there was no trick of sword-play with which he was not acquainted, no ruse of service in a rough-and-tumble in which he was unversed.

He was proudly conscious, too, of his supple strength, his endurance, and his great length of reach, and upon all these he counted to help him make a decent fight.
Valerie, watching him, guessed his purpose to be the gaining of the inner chamber, the crossing of the threshold on which she was standing.
She drew back a pace or two, almost mechanically, to give him room.

The movement went near to costing him his life.

The light no longer falling so pitilessly upon Fortunio's eyes, the captain saw more clearly than hitherto, and shot a swift, deadly stroke straight at the region of Garnache's heart.