my terrific blow full in his face
only thrilled me with savage courage. I hurled him full length on the
stone, my heavy cavalry boot was on his neck, and I would have stamped
the life out of him in an instant. But with the motion of a serpent he
wriggled himself upward; then, catching me by the leg, he had me on one
knee, and his long arms, like the tentacles of a devil-fish, tightened
about me. Then we rolled together over and under, under and over. His
hard white teeth were sunk in my shoulder to cut my life artery. I had
him by the long soft hair, my fingers tangled in the handfuls I had torn
from his head. And every minute I was possessed with a burning frenzy
to strangle him. Every desire had left my being now, save the eagerness
to conquer, and the consciousness of my power to fight until that end
should come.

We were at the cliff's edge now, my head hanging over; the blood was
rushing toward my clogging brain; the sharp rock's rim, like a stone
knife, was cutting my neck. Jean loosened his teeth from my shoulder,
and his murderous hand was on my throat. In that supreme crisis I
summoned the very last atom of energy, the very limit of physical
prowess, the quickness and cunning which can be called forth only by the
conflict with the swift approach of death.

Nature had given me a muscular strength far beyond that of most men. And
all my powers had been trained to swift obedience and almost unlimited
endurance. With this was a nervous system that matched the years of a
young man's greatest vigor. Strong drink and tobacco had never had the
chance to play havoc with my steady hand or to sap the vitality of my
reserve forces. Even as Jean lifted me by the throat to crush my head
backward over that sharp stone ledge, I put forth this burst of power in
a fierceness so irresistible that it hurled him from me, and the
struggle was still unended. We were on our feet again in a rage to reach
the finish. I had almost ceased to care to live. I wanted only to choke
the breath from the creature before me. I wanted only to save from his
hellish power the victims who would become his prey if he were allowed
to live.

Instinct led me to wrestle with my assailant across the ledge toward the
wall that shut in about the sanctuary, just as, a half-year before, on
our "Rockport" fighting ground, I strove to drag him through the bushes
toward Cliff Street, while he tried to fling me off the projecting rock.
And so we locked limb and