r the moment, conquered my usual prudence,--for the steep bank
gave way instantly beneath my weight. I grasped vainly at the edge,
fell heavily sidewise, and rolled like a great log, bruised and
half-stunned, into the black gorge below. I remember gripping at a
slender bush that yielded to my touch; but all the rest was no more
than a breathless tumble, until I struck something soft at the
bottom,--something that squirmed and gripped my long hair savagely, and
pushed my head back with a grasp on the throat that nearly throttled me.

It was all so sudden, so unexpected, that for the moment I was helpless
as a child, struggling merely from the natural instinct of preservation
to break free. I could perceive nothing, the darkness was so intense;
yet as I gradually succeeded in getting my hands loose, I wound them in
long coarse hair, pressed them against bare flesh, heard deep labored
breathing close to my face, and believed I was struggling with a savage.

It was a question of mere brute strength, and neither of us had had the
advantage of surprise. I could feel the sharp prick of my own knife as
he hugged me to him, but I dare not reach for it, and I held his arms
so tightly that he lay panting and struggling as if in a vise. It was
an odd fight, as we turned and tossed, writhed and twisted among those
sharp pointed rocks like two infuriated wild-cats in the dark, neither
venturing to break hold for a blow, nor having breath enough in our
bodies for so much as a curse. My adversary struck me once with his
head under the chin, so hard a blow that everything turned red before
me; and then I got my knee up into the pit of his stomach and caused
him to quiver from the agony of it; yet the fellow clung to me like a
bull-terrier, and never so much as whined.

It was never my nature to yield easily, and I felt now this struggle
was to cost his life or mine; so I clinched my teeth, and sought my
best to push back the other's head until the neck should crack. But if
I was a powerful man, this other was no less so, and he fought with a
fierce and silent desperation that foiled me. We dug and tore, gouged
and struck, digging our heels into the soft earth in a vain endeavor to
gain some advantage of position. My cheek, I knew, was bleeding from
contact with a jagged stone, and I was fast growing faint from the
awful tension, when I felt his arms slip.

"My God!" he panted. "The devil has me!"

So startled was I by thes