conscious that in such a situation he could hope to defend
himself only a few moments longer. The stranger's face was
pressed close to his own. His hot breath, strong with the odor of
garlic, fanned our hero's cheek, while his lips, distended into a
ferocious and ferine grin, displayed his sharp teeth shining in
the candlelight.

"Give me ze ball!" he said, in a harsh and furious whisper.

At the moment there rang in Jonathan's ears the sudden and
astounding detonation of a pistol-shot, and for a moment he
wondered whether he had received a mortal wound without being
aware of it. Then suddenly he beheld an extraordinary and
dreadful transformation take place in the countenance thrust so
close to his own; the eyes winked several times with incredible
rapidity, and then rolled upward and inward; the jaws gaped into
a dreadful and cavernous yawn; the pistol fell with a clatter to
the floor, and the next moment the muscles, so rigid but an
instant before, relaxed into a limp and listless flaccidity. The
joints collapsed, and the entire man fell into an
indistinguishable heap upon and across the dead figure stretched
out upon the floor, while at the same time a pungent and blinding
cloud of gunpowder smoke filled the apartment. For a few moments
the hands twitched convulsively; the neck stretched itself to an
abominable length; the long, lean legs slowly and gradually
relaxed, and every fibre of the body gradually collapsed into the
lassitude of death. A spot of blood appeared and grew upon the
collar at the throat, and in the same degree the color ebbed from
the face leaving it of a dull and leaden pallor.