mingle,
so to speak, with his insanity.

He felt that something unusual was going on within him. He tried to
restrain himself, and chain down his wandering, surging thoughts, but
the more he sought to hold himself down, the more did a demon--who
seemed to have been especially appointed for the purpose--cast his
mental fastenings adrift.

At last he took it into his head that the slumbering pirate had
bewitched him. As this idea gained ground and the internal fires
increased, the old ideas of revenge returned, and he drew the knife
which hung at his belt, gazing furtively at the sleeper as he did so.

But the better nature within the man maintained a fierce conflict with
the worse.

"He murdered my son--my darling Orley!" murmured the madman, as he felt
the keen edge and point of his knife, and crept towards the sleeper,
while a fitful flicker of the dying fire betrayed the awful light that
seemed to blaze in his eyes. "He carried me from my home! He left
Marie to die in hopeless grief! Ha! ha! ha! Oh God! keep me back--back
from _this_."

The noise awoke Rosco, who sat up and gazed at Zeppa in horror, for he
saw at a glance that a fit of his madness must have seized him.

"Zeppa!" he exclaimed, raising himself with difficulty on both hands,
and gazing sternly in the madman's face.

"Ha!" exclaimed the latter, suddenly throwing his knife on the ground
within Rosco's reach, "see, I scorn to take advantage of your unarmed
condition. Take that and defend yourself. I will content myself with
this."

He caught up the heavy staff which he was in the habit of carrying with
him in his mountain rambles. At the same instant Rosco seized the knife
and flung it far into the bush.

"See! I am still unarmed," he said.

"True, but you are not the less guilty, Rosco, and you must die. It is
my duty to kill you."

He advanced with the staff up-raised.

"Stay! Let us consider before you strike. Are you not a self-appointed
executioner?"

The question was well put. The madman lowered the staff to consider.
Instantly the pirate made a plunge at and caught it. Zeppa strove to
wrench it from his grasp, but the pirate felt that his life might depend
on his retaining hold, and, in his extremity, was endued with almost
supernatural strength. In the fierce struggles that ensued, the embers
of the fire were scattered, and the spot reduced to almost total
darkness. During the unequal conflict, the pirate, who cou