ggested to Garcia that we should play cards, and he agreed. In the
second game I told him he was cheating; he began to laugh; I threw the
cards in his face. He tried to get at his blunderbuss. I set my foot on
it, and said, 'They say you can use a knife as well as the best ruffian
in Malaga; will you try it with me?' _El Dancaire_ tried to part us. I
had given Garcia one or two cuffs, his rage had given him courage, he
drew his knife, and I drew mine. We both of us told _El Dancaire_ he
must leave us alone, and let us fight it out. He saw there was no means
of stopping us, so he stood on one side. Garcia was already bent double,
like a cat ready to spring upon a mouse. He held his hat in his
left hand to parry with, and his knife in front of him--that's their
Andalusian guard. I stood up in the Navarrese fashion, with my left arm
raised, my left leg forward, and my knife held straight along my right
thigh. I felt I was stronger than any giant. He flew at me like an
arrow. I turned round on my left foot, so that he found nothing in front
of him. But I thrust him in the throat, and the knife went in so far
that my hand was under his chin. I gave the blade such a twist that it
broke. That was the end. The blade was carried out of the wound by a
gush of blood as thick as my arm, and he fell full length on his face.

"'What have you done?' said _El Dancaire_ to me.

"'Hark ye,' said I, 'we couldn't live on together. I love Carmen and I
mean to be the only one. And besides, Garcia was a villain. I remember
what he did to that poor _Remendado_. There are only two of us left now,
but we are both good fellows. Come, will you have me for your friend,
for life or death?'

"_El Dancaire_ stretched out his hand. He was a man of fifty.

"'Devil take these love stories!' he cried. 'If you'd asked him for
Carmen he'd have sold her to you for a piastre! There are only two of us
now--how shall we manage for to-morrow?'

"'I'll manage it all alone,' I answered. 'I can snap my fingers at the
whole world now.'

"We buried Garcia, and we moved our camp two hundred paces farther on.
The next morning Carmen and her Englishman came along with two muleteers
and a servant. I said to _El Dancaire_:

"'I'll look after the Englishman, you frighten the others--they're not
armed!'

"The Englishman was a plucky fellow. He'd have killed me if Carmen
hadn't jogged his elbow.

"To put it shortly, I won Carmen back that day, and my first words we