h the furious vehemence of
the exertion; when at length Philip shouted, in a voice half-stifled by
strangulation, "Let g--o--o--o, I--I sa--y--y; ah! ah! ah!"

Bat now ran over in a spirit of glee and triumph that cannot well be
described, and clapping his wife on the back, shouted--"Well done,
Kate; stick to him for half a minute and he's yours. Bravo! you clip o'
perdition, bravo!"

He had scarcely uttered the words when the giant carcass of Philip
tottered and fell, dragging Kate along with it, who never for a moment
lost or loosened her hold. Her opponent now began to sprawl and kick
out his feet from a sense of suffocation, and in attempting to call for
assistance, nothing but low, deep gurgling noises could issue from his
lips, now livid with the pressure on his throat and covered with foam.
His face, too, at all times dark and savage, became literally black, and
he uttered such sternutations as, on seeing that they were accompanied
by the diminished struggles which betoken exhaustion, induced Teddy to
rush over for the purpose of rescuing him from her clutches.

"Aisy," said the others; "let them alone--a little thing will do it
now--it's almost over--she has given him his gruel--an' divil's cure to
him--he knew well enough what she could do--but he would have it."

Faint convulsive movements were all now that could be noticed in the
huge limbs of their brother, and still the savage tigress was at his
throat, when her husband at length said:--

"It's time, Ned--it's time--she may carry it too far--he's quiet enough
now. Come away, Kate, it's all right--let him alone--let go your hoult
of him."

Kate, however, as if she had tasted his blood, would listen to no such
language; all the force, and energies, and bloody instincts of the
incarnate fury were aroused within her, and she still stuck to her
victim.

"Be japers she'll kill him," shouted Bat, rushing to her; "come,
Ned, till we unclasp her--take care--pull quickly--bloody wars, he's
dead!--Kate, you divil!--you fury of hell! let go--let go, I say."

Kate, however, heard him not, but still tugged and stuck to the throat
of Philip's quivering carcass, until by a united effort they at length
disentangled her iron clutches from it, upon which she struggled and
howled like a beast of prey, and attempted with a strength that seemed
more akin to the emotion of a devil than that of a woman to get at him
again and again, in order to complete her work.

"Come