quiet one could hear the slightest noise. Then the mayor spoke to the
Tartars and pointed to the Danube; the inn was right on its shore.

"If your man is thrown, this very night you leave our shore, for the
other side."

Ghitza kissed Maria and Lupu, the chief. Then the fight began.

A mighty man was Ghitza and powerful were his arms and legs. But it was
seen from the very first grip that he had burned the candle at both ends
at the same time. He had wasted himself in carouses. The two men closed
one another in their vises and each tried to crush the other's ribs.
Ghitza broke the Tartar's hold and got a grip on his head and twisted it
with all his might. But the neck of the devil was of steel. It did not
yield. Maria began to call to her lover:

"Twist his neck, Ghitza. My father has pledged me to him if he wins."
And many another girl begged Ghitza to save her from marrying a black
devil.

The Tartars, from another side, kept giving advice to their man.
Everybody shrieked like mad, and even the dogs howled. From Ghitza's
body the sweat flowed as freely as a river. But the Tartar's neck
yielded not and his feet were like pillars of steel embedded in rocks.

"Don't let his head go, don't let him go," our people cried, when it was
plain that all his strength had gone out of his arms. Achmed's
pear-shaped head slipped from between his arms as the Tartar wound his
legs about Ghitza's body and began to crush him. Ghitza held on with all
his strength. His face was blue black. His nose bled, and from his mouth
he spat blood. Our people cried and begged him to hold on. The eyes of
the Tartars shot fire, their white teeth showed from under their thick
lips and they called on Achmed to crush the Giaour. Oh! it seemed that
all was lost. All our wealth, the honour and respect Ghitza had won for
us; the village's wealth and all. And all the maidens were to be taken
away as slaves to the Tartars. One man said aloud so that Ghitza should
hear:

"There will not be a pair of oxen in the whole village to plough with;
not a horse to harrow with, and our maidens are pledged to the black
sons of the devil."

Ghitza was being downed. But, wait ... what happened! With the last of
his strength he broke the hold. A shout rose to rend the skies.
Bewildered Achmed lay stupefied and looked on. Tottering on his feet, in
three jumps Ghitza was on the high point of the shore--a splash--and
there was no more Ghitza. He was swallowed by the D