ly to them.

Loerke shook the flask--then he held it inverted over the snow. Only a
few brown drops trickled out.

'All gone!' he said.

To Gerald, the smallish, odd figure of the German was distinct and
objective, as if seen through field glasses. And he disliked the small
figure exceedingly, he wanted it removed.

Then Loerke rattled the box which held the biscuits.

'Biscuits there are still,' he said.

And reaching from his seated posture in the sledge, he handed them to
Gudrun. She fumbled, and took one. He would have held them to Gerald,
but Gerald so definitely did not want to be offered a biscuit, that
Loerke, rather vaguely, put the box aside. Then he took up the small
bottle, and held it to the light.

'Also there is some Schnapps,' he said to himself.

Then suddenly, he elevated the battle gallantly in the air, a strange,
grotesque figure leaning towards Gudrun, and said:

'Gnadiges Fraulein,' he said, 'wohl--'

There was a crack, the bottle was flying, Loerke had started back, the
three stood quivering in violent emotion.

Loerke turned to Gerald, a devilish leer on his bright-skinned face.

'Well done!' he said, in a satirical demoniac frenzy. 'C'est le sport,
sans doute.'

The next instant he was sitting ludicrously in the snow, Gerald's fist
having rung against the side of his head. But Loerke pulled himself
together, rose, quivering, looking full at Gerald, his body weak and
furtive, but his eyes demoniacal with satire.

'Vive le heros, vive--'

But he flinched, as, in a black flash Gerald's fist came upon him,
banged into the other side of his head, and sent him aside like a
broken straw.

But Gudrun moved forward. She raised her clenched hand high, and
brought it down, with a great downward stroke on to the face and on to
the breast of Gerald.

A great astonishment burst upon him, as if the air had broken. Wide,
wide his soul opened, in wonder, feeling the pain. Then it laughed,
turning, with strong hands outstretched, at last to take the apple of
his desire. At last he could finish his desire.

He took the throat of Gudrun between his hands, that were hard and
indomitably powerful. And her throat was beautifully, so beautifully
soft, save that, within, he could feel the slippery chords of her life.
And this he crushed, this he could crush. What bliss! Oh what bliss, at
last, what satisfaction, at last! The pure zest of satisfaction filled
his soul. He was watching the unconscio