continue their flight. It would have been the basest ingratitude to
depart without seeing the result of the interference, and the two
lingered, though it would have been wiser to let the two Christians bite
and tear each other without witnesses of another creed, and with the
witness of none.

It was a free spectacle, but, if it had cost their week's salary at the
casino, it would have been worth the money.

As the major had empty hands after the loss of his prize, the student
had the quixotic delicacy to make the offer in dumbshow to lay aside his
cane and undertake to chastise the insulter of womanhood with the naked
fist. But this is a weapon almost unknown in the sword-bearing class
which Von Sendlingen adorned, and, infuriated by the civilian
intervening at the culmination of his daring plan, to say nothing of
the annoying thought that his failure would be no secret from the old
hag, his accomplice, looking on at the extremity of the bridge, he
yielded to the worst devil in his heart. He inclined to the most
high-handed and hectoring measure. Whipping out his sabre with a rapid
gesture, and merely muttering a discourteous and grudging: "Be on your
guard!" he dealt a cut at the student which threatened to cleave him in
two.

The other was on the alert; he had suspected one capable of such an
outrage, likewise capable of worse, and he parried the coward's blow so
dexterously with his cane that it was the soldier who was thrown off his
balance. A second blow, with the tremendous sweep of the stick held at
arm's length, tested the metal of the blade to its utmost, and, as the
wielder's hand was thoroughly palsied, drove it out of the opening
fingers, and all heard it splash in the black and pestiferous waters