"Is it possible you have never handled a blade?" exclaims the other guy, like he couldn't have heard it right.
"I used to, at that," admits the Kid, "but now I use a fork, except to pat down the potatoes!"
"So much the worse for you, then!" frowns the sword-swallower. "But you brought it upon yourself. Remember, to-morrow! And—" he stoops over and hisses, "—rapiers, without buttons!"
"Ha, ha!" yells the Kid. "Raypeers without buttons! How are you gonna hold 'em up?"
"Your ignorance is pathetic—not funny!" answers the other guy.
"I know," says the Kid. "I barely got through Yale!" He lays his arm on this guy's shoulder. "Are you on the level with this fight thing?" he asks him.
"I was never more in earnest in my life!" says the knife-thrower.
"Or nearer Heaven!" grins the Kid. "All right!" he goes on. "I'm game, if you are, only there's just one question I'd like to ask before the slaughter begins; don't I get no say about the tools we're gonna use?"
This guy thinks for a minute and then nods his head.
"Very well!" he says. "I'll make the concession—an unheard-of thing in the code. What is your choice?"