most surprised. He stared at me as if I were a
man returned from the dead.

"Put up that revolver, Codd," I cried. "And you, Kitwater, drop that
knife. Hayle, my man, it's all up. The game is over, so you may as
well give in."

Leglosse was about to advance upon him, warrant in one hand and manacles
in the other.

"What does this mean?" cried Hayle.

His voice located him, and before we could either of us stop him,
Kitwater had sprung forward and clutched him in his arms. Of what
followed next I scarcely like to think, even now. In cannoning with
Hayle he had dropped his knife, and now the two stood while a man could
have counted three, locked together in deadly embrace. Then ensued such
a struggle as I hope I shall never see again, while we others stood
looking on as if we were bound hand and foot. The whole affair could
not have lasted more than a few moments, and yet it seemed like an
eternity. Kitwater, with the strength of a madman, had seized Hayle
round the waist with one arm, while his right hand was clutching at the
other's throat. I saw that the veins were standing out upon Hayle's
forehead like black cords. Do what he could, he could not shake off the
man he had so cruelly wronged. They swayed to and fro, and in one of
their lurches struck the window, which flew open and threw them into the
balcony outside. Codd and the Sicilian police official gave loud cries,
but as for me I could not have uttered a sound had my life depended on
it. Hayle must have realized his terrible position, for there was a look
of abject, hopeless terror upon his face. The blind man, of course,
could see nothing of his danger. His one desire was to be revenged upon
his enemy. Closer and closer they came to the frail railing. Once they
missed it, and staggered a foot away from it. Then they came back to it
again, and lurched against it. The woodwork snapped, and the two men
fell over the edge on to the sloping bank below. Still locked together
they rolled over and over, down the declivity towards the edge of the
cliff. A great cry from Hayle reached our ears. A moment later they had
disappeared into the abyss, while we stood staring straight before us,
too terrified to speak or move.

[Illustration: "THE WOODWORK SNAPPED, AND THE TWO MEN FELL OVER THE
EDGE."]

Leglosse was the first to find his voice.

"My God!" he said, "how terrible! how terrible!"

Then little Codd sank down, and, placing his head upon his hands on the
t