Another instant, and the leopard skin cloak fluttered before him. With
a quick movement of his left arm he swept it aside; then there came a
sudden pressure upon his sword ending in a jarring shock, a flash of
steel above his head, and down he went to the ground beneath the weight
of the black giant.

"Now there is an end," he thought; "Heaven receive my spirit." And his
senses left him.

When they returned again, Aziel perceived dimly that a white-draped
figure bent over him, dragging at something black which crushed his
breast, who, as she dragged, sobbed in her grief and fear. Then he
remembered, and with an effort sat up, rolling from him the corpse of
his foe, for his sword had pierced the barbarian through breast and
heart and back. At this sight the woman ceased her sobbing, and said in
the Phoenician tongue:--

"Sir, do you indeed live? Then the protecting gods be thanked, and to
Baaltis the Mother I vow a gift of this hair of mine in gratitude."

"Nay, lady," he answered faintly, for he was much shaken, "that would be
a pity; also, if any, it is my hair which should be vowed."

"You bleed from the head," she broke in; "say, stranger, are you deeply
wounded."

"I will tell you nothing of my head," he replied, with a smile, "unless
you promise that you will not offer up your hair."

"So be it, stranger, since I must; I will give the goddess this gold