All were now looking for a quick termination to the affair; but in this
they were disappointed. After several random thrusts had been given on
both sides, the combatants again became separated without either having
received any serious injury. The wild rage which blinded both,
rendering their blows uncertain,--combined with the weakness of their
bodies from long starvation,--may account for their thus separating for
the second time, without either having received a mortal wound.

Equally innocuous proved the third encounter,--though differing in
character from either of those that preceded it. As they came together,
each grasped the right arm of his antagonist,--that which wielded the
weapon,--in his left hand; and firmly holding one another by the wrists,
they continued the strife. In this way it was no longer a contest of
skill, but of strength. Nor was it at all dangerous, as long as the
"grip" held good; since neither could use his knife. Either could have
let go with his left hand at any moment; but by so doing he would
release the _armed_ hand of his antagonist, and thus place himself in
imminent peril.

Both were conscious of the danger; and, instead of separating, they
continued to preserve the reciprocal "clutch" that had been established
between them.

For some minutes they struggled in this strange fashion,--the intention
of each being to throw the other upon the raft. That done, he who
should be uppermost would obtain a decided advantage.

They twisted, and turned, and wriggled their bodies about; but both
still managed to keep upon their feet.

The contest was not carried on in any particular spot, but all over the
raft; up against the mast, around the empty casks, among the osseous
relics of humanity,--the strewed bones rattling against their feet as
they trod over them. The spectators made way as they came nearer,
nimbly leaping from side to side; while the stage upon which this
fearful drama was being enacted,--despite the ballast of its
water-logged beams, and the buoyancy of its empty casks,--was kept in a
continual commotion.

It soon became evident that Le Gros was likely to get the worst of it,
in this trial of strength. The muscular power of the Frenchman was
inferior to that of his island antagonist; and had it been a mere
contest of toughness, the former would have been defeated.

In craft, however, Le Gros was the Irishman's superior: and at this
crisis stratagem came to his ai