Mastering his emotion with the utmost difficulty as Jonathan replaced the ball in his pocket, he drew a deep and profound breath and wiped the palm of his hand across his forehead as though arousing himself from a dream.
"And you," he said, of a sudden, "are, I understand it, a Quaker.
Do you, then, never carry a weapon, even in such a place as this, where at any moment in the dark a Spanish knife may be stuck betwixt your ribs?""Why, no," said Jonathan, somewhat surprised that so foreign a topic should have been so suddenly introduced into the discourse.
"I am a man of peace and not of blood.The people of the Society of Friends never carry weapons, either of offence or defence."As Jonathan concluded his reply the little gentleman suddenly arose from his chair and moved briskly around to the other side of the room.Our hero, watching him with some surprise, beheld him clap to the door and with a single movement shoot the bolt and turn the key therein.The next instant he turned to Jonathan a visage transformed as suddenly as though he had dropped a mask from his face.The gossiping and polite little old bachelor was there no longer, but in his stead a man with a countenance convulsed with some furious and nameless passion.
"That ball!" he cried, in a hoarse and raucous voice."That ivory ball! Give it to me upon the instant!"As he spoke he whipped out from his bosom a long, keen Spanish knife that in its every appearance spoke without equivocation of the most murderous possibilities.
The malignant passions that distorted every lineament of the countenance of the little old gentleman in black filled our hero with such astonishment that he knew not whether he were asleep or awake; but when he beheld the other advancing with the naked and shining knife in his hand his reason returned to him like a flash.Leaping to his feet, he lost no time in putting the table between himself and his sudden enemy.
"Indeed, friend," he cried, in a voice penetrated with terror--"indeed, friend, thou hadst best keep thy distance from me, for though I am a man of peace and a shunner of bloodshed, Ipromise thee that I will not stand still to be murdered without outcry or without endeavoring to defend my life!""Cry as loud as you please!" exclaimed the other."No one is near this place to hear you! Cry until you are hoarse; no one in this neighborhood will stop to ask what is the matter with you.I tell you I am determined to possess myself of that ivory ball, and have it I shall, even though I am obliged to cut out your heart to get it!" As he spoke he grinned with so extraordinary and devilish a distortion of his countenance, and with such an appearance of every intention of carrying out his threat as to send the goose-flesh creeping like icy fingers up and down our hero's spine with the most incredible rapidity and acuteness.
Nevertheless, mastering his fears, Jonathan contrived to speak up with a pretty good appearance of spirit."Indeed, friend," he said, "thou appearest to forget that I am a man of twice thy bulk and half thy years, and that though thou hast a knife I am determined to defend myself to the last extremity.I am not going to give thee that which thou demandest of me, and for thy sake Iadvise thee to open the door and let me go free as I entered, or else harm may befall thee.""Fool!" cried the other, hardly giving him time to end."Do you, then, think that I have time to chatter with you while two villains are lying in wait for me, perhaps at the very door?
Blame your own self for your death!" And, gnashing his teeth with an indescribable menace, and resting his hand upon the table, he vaulted with incredible agility clean across it and upon our hero, who, entirely unprepared for such an extraordinary attack, was flung back against the wall, with an arm as strong as steel clutching his throat and a knife flashing in his very eyes with dreadful portent of instant death.
With an instinct to preserve his life, he caught his assailant by the wrist, and, bending it away from himself, set every fibre of his body in a superhuman effort to guard and protect himself.The other, though so much older and smaller, seemed to be composed entirely of fibres of steel, and, in his murderous endeavors, put forth a strength so extraordinary that for a moment our hero felt his heart melt within him with terror for his life.The spittal appeared to dry up within his mouth, and his hair to creep and rise upon his head.With a vehement cry of despair and anguish, he put forth one stupendous effort for defence, and, clapping his heel behind the other's leg, and throwing his whole weight forward, he fairly tripped his antagonist backward as he stood.
Together they fell upon the floor, locked in the most desperate embrace, and overturning a chair with a prodigious clatter in their descent--our hero upon the top and the little gentleman in black beneath him.
As they struck the floor the little man in black emitted a most piercing and terrible scream, and instantly relaxing his efforts of attack, fell to beating the floor with the back of his hands and drubbing with his heels upon the rug in which he had become entangled.
Our hero leaped to his feet, and with dilating eyes and expanding brain and swimming sight stared down upon the other like one turned to a stone.
He beheld instantly what had occurred, and that he had, without so intending, killed a fellow-man.The knife, turned away from his own person, had in their fall been plunged into the bosom of the other, and he now lay quivering in the last throes of death.
As Jonathan gazed he beheld a thin red stream trickle out from the parted and grinning lips; he beheld the eyes turn inward; he beheld the eyelids contract; he beheld the figure stretch itself;he beheld it become still in death.
