e of the mark than before.

With a wild oath he flung the smoking weapons into the road, and again
drove the spurs into the steaming sides of his horse. There could be no
doubt as to the result of the chase after that. The half-maddened
animal was overhauling the fugitives perceptibly at every enormous
stride, and in a few moments more shot by the buggy and up to the head
of the terrified mare. As he did so, his rider reached out his left hand
and caught the mare by her bridle, reined up his own horse and threw
both of the animals back upon their haunches.

In another instant the two men stood confronting each other on the road,
the quack black and terrible, the Quaker white and calm. Not a word was
spoken, and like two wild beasts emerging from a jungle they sprang at
each other's throats. They were oddly, but not unequally, matched, for
while the doctor was short, thick-set and muscular, but clumsy and
awkward like a bear, David was tall and slim, but lithe and sinewy as a
panther. Locked in each other's arms, they seemed like a single hideous
monster in some sort of convulsion.

As it was impossible for them in this deadly embrace to strike, they
wrestled rather than fought, and bit with teeth and tore with hands with
equal ferocity.

At the instant when the two infuriated men seized each other in this
deadly grip, Pepeeta fainted, while the terrified mare backed the buggy
into the bushes by the roadside. Romeo, snorting and pawing the ground,
approached the combatants, snuffed at them a moment as if profoundly
concerned at their strange maneuvers, then, turning away, began to crop
the rich blue grass in entire indifference to the results of this mad
quarrel between two foolish men.

The combatants surged and swayed back and forth along the dusty road,
tripping and stumbling in vain efforts to throw each other to the
ground. Their danger lent them strength, and their hatred skill. At
last, after protracted efforts, they fell and rolled over and over, now
one on top, now the other. Suddenly and as if by a single impulse
changing their tactics, their right hands unclasped and began to feel
each for the other's throat. A sudden slip of David's hold permitted the
doctor to turn him over, and sprawling across his breast he pinioned him
to the earth. His great hand stole toward the throat of his prostrate
foe and fastened upon it with the grip of an iron vise.

The beautiful face turned pale, then grew purple. This w