the passage; a glimmer came through the
chinks of a door to the left; I turned the handle noiselessly, and, the
next moment, Margrave was locked in my grasp.

"Call out," I hissed in his ear, "and I strangle you before any one can
come to your help."

He did not call out; his eye, fixed on mine as he writhed round, saw,
perhaps, his peril if he did. His countenance betrayed fear, but as
I tightened my grasp that expression gave way to one of wrath and
fierceness; and as, in turn, I felt the grip of his hand, I knew that
the struggle between us would be that of two strong men, each equally
bent on the mastery of the other.

I was, as I have said before, endowed with an unusual degree of physical
power, disciplined in early youth by athletic exercise and contest. In
height and in muscle I had greatly the advantage over my antagonist;
but such was the nervous vigour, the elastic energy of his incomparable
frame, in which sinews seemed springs of steel, that had our encounter
been one in which my strength was less heightened by rage, I believe
that I could no more have coped with him than the bison can cope with
the boa; but I was animated by that passion which trebles for a time
all our forces,--which makes even the weak man a match for the strong.
I felt that if I were worsted, disabled, stricken down, Lilian might be
lost in losing her sole protector; and on the other hand, Margrave had
been taken at the disadvantage of that surprise which will half unnerve
the fiercest of the wild beasts; while as we grappled, reeling and
rocking to and fro in our struggle, I soon observed that his attention
was distracted,--that his eye was turned towards an object which he
had dropped involuntarily when I first seized him. He sought to drag me
towards that object, and when near it stooped to seize. It was a bright,
slender, short wand of steel. I remembered when and where I had seen it,
whether in my waking state or in vision; and as his hand stole down to
take it from the floor, I set on the wand my strong foot. I cannot tell
by what rapid process of thought and association I came to the belief
that the possession of a little piece of blunted steel would decide the
conflict in favor of the possessor; but the struggle now was concentred
on the attainment of that seemingly idle weapon. I was becoming
breathless and exhausted, while Margrave seemed every moment to gather
up new force, when collecting all my strength for one final eff