A violent quarrel then ensued, and such epithets as liar, cheat, and
swindler were freely interchanged, and then there was a simultaneous
spring at each other, the chairs were overturned and they were rolling
upon the floor, dealing each other fierce blows and tearing each other's
hair like wild beasts. It was the peddler who struck first, but Peter,
being the stronger of the two, got his antagonist under him, and with a
stick of wood which was lying upon the hearth struck him upon the head,
inflicting a fearful wound from which the blood flowed in torrents,
staining Peter's hands and face as he pushed back his hair, and sobered
him at once. But it was too late, for when Hannah, who, during the
fight, had cowered in the corner with her hands over her eyes, withdrew
them as the struggle ceased, and looked at the white, blood-stained face
over which her father was bending, she knew the man was dead, and with a
cry of horror, ran from the room out into the darkness, where shriek
after shriek of "_Murder! Murder!_" rang out upon the air and was
drowned by the louder scream of the terrible storm which was sweeping
over the hills that Thanksgiving night.

Beside her in the snow crouched the house-dog, Rover, trembling with
fear, and mingling his howling cry of terror with her more awful one of
murder. The dog had been a witness of the fray, keeping close by his
mistress' side, and occasionally uttering a low growl of disapproval as
the blows fell thick and fast, and when at last it was over, and the
dead man lay white and still, with his blood upon the floor, Rover
sprang toward his master with a loud, angry bark and then fled with
Hannah into the storm, where he mingled his cry with hers and added to
the horror of the scene.

"Half-crazed with what he had done, and terrified lest be should be
detected, Peter Jerrold's first idea was of self-preservation from the