rtunity never came. Wolf Larsen was too wise
for that, and, besides, they had no adequate weapons. With their fists
alone they had no chance whatever. Time and again he fought it out with
Leach who fought back always, like a wildcat, tooth and nail and fist,
until stretched, exhausted or unconscious, on the deck. And he was never
averse to another encounter. All the devil that was in him challenged
the devil in Wolf Larsen. They had but to appear on deck at the same
time, when they would be at it, cursing, snarling, striking; and I have
seen Leach fling himself upon Wolf Larsen without warning or provocation.
Once he threw his heavy sheath-knife, missing Wolf Larsen's throat by an
inch. Another time he dropped a steel marlinspike from the mizzen
crosstree. It was a difficult cast to make on a rolling ship, but the
sharp point of the spike, whistling seventy-five feet through the air,
barely missed Wolf Larsen's head as he emerged from the cabin
companion-way and drove its length two inches and over into the solid
deck-planking. Still another time, he stole into the steerage, possessed
himself of a loaded shot-gun, and was making a rush for the deck with it
when caught by Kerfoot and disarmed.

I often wondered why Wolf Larsen did not kill him and make an end of it.
But he only laughed and seemed to enjoy it. There seemed a certain spice
about it, such as men must feel who take delight in making pets of
ferocious animals.

"It gives a thrill to life," he explained to me, "when life is carried in
one's hand. Man is a natural gambler, and life is the biggest stake he
can lay. The greater the odds, the greater the thrill. Why should I
deny myself the joy of exciting Leach's soul to fever-pitch? For that
matter, I do him a kindness. The greatness of sensation is mutual. He
is living more royally than any man for'ard, though he does not know it.
For he has what they have not--purpose, something to do and be done, an
all-absorbing end to strive to attain, the desire to kill me, the hope
that he may kill me. Really, Hump, he is living deep and high. I doubt
that he has ever lived so swiftly and keenly before, and I honestly envy
him, sometimes, when I see him raging at the summit of passion and
sensibility."

"Ah, but it is cowardly, cowardly!" I cried. "You have all the
advantage."

"Of the two of us, you and I, who is the greater coward?" he asked
seriously. "If the situation is unpleasing, you comprom