ud bellow of "Help! Come quickly!" he released
her, and struck fiercely with his left hand. Yet this gentle girl, who
had never taken part in any more violent struggle than a school romp,
had the presence of mind to throw herself backward, and thus discount
the blow, while upsetting her adversary's balance. But her clenched
teeth did not let go. It came out long afterwards that she was a
first-rate gymnast. One day, moved by curiosity on seeing some
performance in a circus, she had essayed the stage trick of hanging head
downward from a cross-bar, and twirling around another girl's body
girdled by a strap working on a swivel attached to a strong pad which
she bit resolutely. Then she discovered a scientific fact which very
few people are aware of. The jaw is, perhaps, the strongest part of the
human frame, and can exercise a power relatively far greater than that
of the hands. Of course, she could not have held out for long, but she
did thwart and delay the maddened Prussian during two precious seconds.
Even when he essayed to choke her she still contrived to save herself by
seizing his free hand.

By that time Dalroy had leaped to the rescue. Shortening the rifle in
the way familiar to all who have practised the bayonet exercise, he
drove it against the Prussian's neck. The jagged stump inflicted a wound
which looked worse than it was; but the mere shock of the blow robbed
the man of his senses, and he fell like a log.

In order to come within striking distance, Dalroy had to jump over
Busch. Old Joos, piping in a weird falsetto, had sprung at the fat major
and spitted him in the stomach with all four prongs of the fork. Busch
toppled over backward with a fearsome howl, the chair breaking under his
weight combined with a frantic effort to escape. The miller went with
him, and dug the terrible weapon into his soft body as though driving it
into a truss of straw. Maertz, a lusty fellow, had made shorter work of
his man, because one prong had reached the German's heart, and he was
stilled at once. But Joos thrust and thrust again, even using a foot to
bury the fork to its shoulder.

This was the most ghastly part of a thrilling episode. Busch writhed on
the floor, screaming shrilly for mercy, and striving vainly to stay with
his hands the deadly implement from eating into his vitals.

That despairing effort gave the miller a ghoulish satisfaction. "Aha!"
he chortled, "you laughed at Lafarge! Laugh now, you swine! _That