wolves upon a stricken elk,
yet they found the detective waiting for them.

Nick hurled one aside, unable to use his revolver, and grappled with the
second, both falling heavily to the pavement.

Then number one was at him again, and got him by the throat, with a grip
from which Nick thrice wrenched himself free, at the same time fiercely
banging the head of the other upon the stones upon which the terrific
combat was being waged.

An oath of vicious rage broke from the latter, and then he fiercely
cried again:

"The pear! D---- you, be quick! The pear!--the pear!"

As if in response to this, Nick, who was panting under his violent
efforts to overcome both powerful men, suddenly felt something thrust
forcibly into his mouth.

Still manfully battling with his opponents, Nick tried to eject the
object, opening his jaws wider in the effort.

The object, which was shaped like a solid pear, instantly expanded, and
Nick could not close his jaws.

Again he tried, opening them still wider, and again the pear-shaped
object expanded and held them rigid.

Then Nick guessed the truth.

While struggling with might and main to beat these ruffians, he had been
made the victim of an infernal instrument but seldom seen in these days,
and one of the most agonizing and diabolical devices of man's perverted
ingenuity.

The object in Nick's mouth was a "choke pear!"

This vicious instrument of torture dates back to the time of Palioly,
the notorious French robber and renegade, when it was very worthily
called "the pear of anguish."

It consists of a solid gag, so to speak, yet it is so constructed, with
interior springs, that, once thrust into a person's mouth, it expands as
fast as the mouth is opened, and rigidly distends the victim's jaws.

The more widely the victim gapes to eject the "choke pear," or to cry
out for aid, the larger the hideous object becomes, until torture,
suffocation and death speedily ensue.

Had this infernal device been generally available to modern criminals,
Nick would have been warned by the significant words he had heard, and
would have guarded himself against it.

As it was, however, he had been caught; and in the mouth of any ordinary
man the "choke pear" would have been irresistible.

But the muscles of Nick Carter's jaws were like fibers of steel, and the
instant he realized his situation he opened his mouth no wider. Instead,
while hands and arms were still engaged in the furious conf