e equally matched, the white man, tough,
powerful, and in the pink of training; the dark man lithe, cat-like, but
accustomed to depend more on quick sinuosity of movement than on sheer
muscular power. Moreover he was armed, and his opponent was not.

Armed. One quick deft stroke of that broad-headed short-handled
stabbing spear, and where was the other? Yet he could not deliver it.
His adversary had bent back his arm. In his iron strength he had forced
it out to its full length behind, well nigh dislocating it at the
shoulder. The dark man could not even change the weapon into his left
hand. And, so sudden had been the onslaught, that his great knobbed
stick lay on the ground, yards away.

Wait. The white man could have made an end of the struggle at any
moment. He was armed--though to all intents and purposes not--and this
is how such a paradox unravels. He had a fully loaded five chambered
revolver upon him, but it was a matter of vital importance to refrain
from firing a shot on this silent, lonely mountain top at such a moment.
So for all practical purposes he was an unarmed man.

Yet his plan of campaign was clear--clear, fell, and remorseless. He
had seen what his opponent had not; and now by every effort of his
straining, powerful muscles he was forcing that opponent steadily
backward. For in the weird light of Heaven's fires above and around he
had detected a certain line in the waving grass bents, which labelled
its own character. His adversary should perform his own funeral.

His said adversary was giving way. In fact he was gathering himself for
a final spring. Still no word between the two men. Only the deep heave
of laboured, but carefully husbanded breathing. Now and then something
like a cracking sound, as joints and muscles tightened. Then the dark
man suddenly and with a mighty effort, wrenched himself free, and--
disappeared.

Disappeared. For a fraction of a second the great white fiery cloud
shed its gleam upon an appalled face and rolling eyeballs, and a
convulsive clutching of two sinewy hands at the grass tufts; and then
upon the white man standing once more on the mountain top--alone.

He stood for a few moments panting after the struggle. Then, having
recovered breath, he took a couple of steps forward and peered down into
the narrow black rift. No sound came up. He found a stone, and dropped
it in. A rattle or two against the rocky sides, and then silence. Only
the