il which now
afforded opportunity, and Keith crept forward, alert and ready, his
teeth clenched, his hands bare for contest. Even although he surprised
his antagonist, it was going to be a fight for life; he knew "Black
Bart," broad-shouldered, quick as a cat, accustomed to every form of
physical exercise, desperate and tricky, using either knife or gun
recklessly. Yet it was now or never for all of them, and the plainsman
felt no mercy, experienced no reluctance. He reached the table, and
straightened up, silent, expectant. For an instant there was no further
sound; no evidence of movement in the room. Hawley, puzzled by the
silence, was listening intently in an endeavor to thus locate the girl
through some rustling, some slight motion. A knife, knocked from the
table, perhaps, as she slipped softly past, fell clattering to the
floor, and the gambler leaped instantly forward. Keith's grip closed
like iron on his groping arm, while he shot one fist out toward where
the man's head should be. The blow glanced, yet drove the fellow
backward, stumbling against the table, and Keith closed in, grappling
for the throat. The other, startled by the unexpected attack, and
scarcely realizing even yet the nature of his antagonist, struggled
blindly to escape the fingers clawing at him, and flung one hand down to
the knife in his belt. Warned by the movement, the assailant drove
his head into the gambler's chest, sending him crashing to the floor,
falling himself heavily upon the prostrate body. Hawley gave utterance
to one cry, half throttled in his throat, and then the two grappled
fiercely, so interlocked together as to make weapons useless. Whoever
the assailant might be, the gambler was fully aware by now that he
was being crushed in the grasp of a fighting man, and exerted every
wrestler's trick, every ounce of strength, to break free. Twice he
struggled to his knees, only to be crowded backward by relentless power;
once he hurled Keith sideways, but the plainsman's muscles stiffened
into steel, and he gradually regained his position. Neither dared
release a grip in order to strike a blow: neither had sufficient breath
left with which to utter a sound. They were fighting for life, silently,
desperately, like wild beasts, with no thought but to injure the other.
The gambler's teeth sank into Keith's arm, and the latter in return
jammed the man's head back onto the puncheon floor viciously.
Perspiration streamed from their bodies