the wharf,
where the posts projected out of the water as high as a man's head, and
the water itself was deep enough to give plenty of room for the
steamer's keel.

"You or I," gasped the furious peasant. "You or I! If she won't have
me, she sha'n't have you either, you damned city puppy!" He struggled
with renewed fury to push his enemy over the railing. But Felix was on
his guard. By a quick push he gained the shore side again, and forced
his opponent back almost to the last plank. For a moment the battle
paused. The next instant Felix felt a violent stab; a sharp-pointed
instrument had been thrust into him under the armpit between his breast
and shoulder, so that his left arm dropped paralyzed by his side.

He felt at once that he was seriously wounded, and a terrible fury
seized upon him. "Murderer!" he cried; "you cowardly ruffian, you shall
pay for this!"

Exerting all his strength, he threw the fellow to the ground, seized
his throat so firmly with his right hand that he could do nothing but
gasp, and would have strangled him had not the man, who had suddenly
become sober, and who was lying on the very edge of the wharf, been
crafty enough to draw the supple Spanish blade, with all his force,
across the hand that was choking him. The moment the bloody hand
released his throat, he slid over the edge of the wharf and immediately
vanished in the lake below.

The dull, splashing noise of the fall suddenly brought the victor to
his senses. But he felt absolutely indifferent about the fellow's
rising again and gaining the shore. He had no other feeling than one of
disgust at this wild struggle in such a wretched cause. And now, when
he found himself alone on the high wharf, a cold shudder passed over
him, as if he had just shaken off a mad dog and hurled him into the
water. He peered down into the lake and then tried to laugh; but
shuddered anew at his own voice, that sounded so strange to him. Then,
too, the squeaking, idiotic clarionet and the comfortably grunting
bass-viol kept sounding in his ears;--what a world, in which all this
could be huddled so close together! Then, leaning on the railing, over
which the blood from his hand was trickling, he raised himself up, and
was conscious now, for the first time, of a piercing pain in his
shoulder. But his legs still bore him. Away, only away! was all he
thought. The resolution he had previously formed, before the murderous
fellow came in his way, rose clearly befo