With such force as Brice was able to exert, the other's breath
was shut off, while he was all but paralyzed by the digging
pressure into his carotid.

Such a grip is well understood by Japanese athletes, though
its possibilities and method are unknown to the average
Occidental. Rightly applied, it is irresistible. Carried to
its conclusion, it spells sudden and agonizing death to its
victim.

And Gavin Brice was carrying it to the conclusion, with all
the sinew and science of his trained arms.

The knifer's strength was gorilla-like. But that strength, at
every second, was rendered more and more futile. The man must
have realized it. For, all at once, he ceased his battery of
kicks and blows, and struggled frantically to tear free.

Each plunging motion merely intensified the pain and power of
the relentless throat-grip that pinioned him. And, strangling
and panic-struck, he became wilder in his fruitless efforts to
wrench loose. Then, deprived of breath and with his
nerve-centers shaken, he lost the power to strive.

It was the time for which Gavin had waited. With perfect
ease, now, he twisted the knife from the failing grasp, and,
with his left hand, he reinforced the throat-grip of his
right. As he did so, he got his legs under him and arose,
dragging upward with him the all but senseless body of his
garroted foe.