, for this he had laughed, for this he had frisked about so
uproariously. He was unable to conceal his delight. If only he could be
alone with his tormentor at that giddy height, suddenly seize him, and
hurl him down with himself from the roof, fly for a few seconds through
the air, and then lie stretched upon the earth in a smashed and broken
mass, so that it would be impossible to distinguish the one from the
other--ah! then how happy he would be!

And--better than that even--his victim had clutched hold of something in
the very act of falling, and so the delicious moment was indefinitely
prolonged! He heard how his prey roared for help, saw how he writhed
convulsively in the desperate hope of saving himself, how half out of
his mind he even begged him, Mekipiros! for life: "Mekipiros, dear good
Mekipiros, let me go, and plunge down alone!"

"Hamamama! hamamama!" gurgled the monster with a grim cruel voice, and
he kicked the wall with his feet to make Ivan let go the quicker, and
buried his scanty teeth in the fleshy legs of his victim, and worried
him like a dog.

"Mercy, mercy! Help! I can hold out no longer!" gasped Ivan, his sinews
beginning to stretch beneath the pressure of the double load. No help
was possible. Those standing below cursed him for rousing the castle
with his shouts. The narrow edge of the gutter was gradually slipping
through his nerveless fingers. And now one hand relaxed its hold, and
only by a last convulsive effort did he manage to hold on for a few
seconds by the other.

"Hamamama!" screeched the monster, and then a yell, as of the lost,
resounded from height to depth, and a huge round, black, writhing, coil
came bounding rapidly to the ground, and there, the next instant, lay a
mangled mass of flesh, in which perhaps at one time two souls had dwelt.

"And now let us see what the next can do," growled Dame Zudar, leaning
nonchalantly back in her waggon, and crossing her arms over her breast
like an impatient singer at a concert who waits for his turn in the
programme to come while his colleagues are boring the public to death
with their dismal performances.

At Ivan's first howl two lights had become visible in the two corner
chambers of the castle, and presently both of these lights were observed
hastening to the central hall only, a few moments later, to be
extinguished. Then the iron shutters were banged down with a crash, only
one square piece in the middle still remained raised.