terror. He seemed so intent in his own gaze,
as to be inattentive or unconscious of all else.
I stole round from my post, and still, undercover,
sometimes of the broken wall, sometimes
of the shaggy ridges that skirted the path
crept on, on till I reached the side of the house
itself; then, there secure from his eyes, should
he turn them, I stepped over the ruined wall,
scarcely two feet high in that place, on—on
towards the door. I passed the spot on which the
policeman had shrouded himself: he was seated,
his back against the ribs of the broken boat. I
put my hand to his mouth that he might not cry
out in surprise, and whispered in his ear; he
stirred not. I shook him by the arm; still he
stirred not. A ray of the moon fell on his face.
I saw that he was in a profound slumber.
Persuaded that it was no natural sleep, and that he
had become useless to me, I passed him by. I
was at the threshold of the open door; the light
from the window close by falling on the ground;
I was in the passage; a glimmer came through
the chinks of a door to the left; I turned
the handle noiselessly, and, the next moment,
Margrave was locked in my grasp.

"Call out," I hissed into his ear, "and I
strangle you before any one can come to your
help!"

He did not call out; his eye, fixed on mine as
he writhed round, saw, perhaps, his peril if he
did. His countenance betrayed fear, but as I
tightened my grasp that expression gave way to
one of wrath and fierceness; and as, in turn, I
felt the gripe of his hand, I knew that the struggle
between us would be that of two strong men,
each equally bent on the mastery of the other.

I was, as I have said before, endowed with an
unusual degree of physical power, disciplined, in
early youth, by athletic exercise and contest. In
height and in muscle I had greatly the advantage
over my antagonist, but such was the nervous
vigour, the elastic energy of his incomparable
frame, in which sinews seemed springs of steel,
that had our encounter been one in which my
strength was less heightened by rage, I believe
that I could no more have coped with him than
the bison can cope with the boa; but I was
animated by that passion which trebles for a time
all our forces— which makes even the weak man
a match for the strong. I felt that if I were
worsted, disabled, stricken down, Lilian might
be lost in losing her sole protector; and, on the
other hand, Margrave had been taken at the
disadvantage of that surprise which will half
unnerve the fiercest of the wild beasts; while as we
grappled, reeling and rocked to and fro in our
struggle, I soon observed that his attention was
distracted that his eye was turned towards an
object which he had dropped involuntarily when
I first seized him. He sought to drag me towards
that object, and when near it, stooped to seize.
It was a bright, slender, short wand of steel. I
remembered when and where I had seen it,
whether in my waking state or in vision, and as his
hand stole down to take it from the floor I set on
the wand my strong foot. I cannot tell by what
rapid process of thought and association I came
to the belief that the possession of a little
piece of blunted steel would decide the conflict
in favour of the possessor, but the struggle now
was concentred in the attainment of that
seemingly idle weapon. I was becoming breathless
and exhausted, while Margrave seemed every
moment to gather up new force, when, collecting
all my strength for one final effort, I lifted him
suddenly high in the air, and hurled him to the
farthest end of the cramped arena to which our
contest was confined. He fell, and with a force
by which most men would have been stunned;
but he recovered himself with a quick rebound,
and, as he stood facing me, there was something
grand as well as terrible in his aspect. His eyes
literally flamed, as those of a tiger; his rich
hair, flung back from his knitted forehead,
seemed to erect itself as an angry mane; his
lips, slightly parted, showed the glitter of his set
teeth; his whole frame seemed larger in the
tension of the muscles, and as gradually relaxing
his first defying and haughty attitude, he crouched
as the panther crouches for its deadly spring, I
felt as if it were a wild beast whose rush was
coming upon me— wild beast, but still Man, the
king of the animals, fashioned forth from no
mixture of humbler races by the slow revolutions of
time, but his royalty stamped on his form when
the earth became fit for his coming.*

* " And yet, even if we entirely omit the consideration
of the soul, that immaterial and immortal
principle which is for a time united to his body, and
view him only in his merely animal character, man
is still the most excellent of animals."—Dr. Kidd on
the Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical
Condition of Man (Sect. iii. page 18).

At that moment I snatched up the wand,
directed it towards him, and, advancing with a
fearless stride, cried,

"Down to my feet, miserable sorcerer!"

To my own amaze, the effect was instantaneous.
My terrible antagonist dropped to the floor as a
dog drops at the word of his master. The
muscles of his frowning countenance relaxed,
the glare of his wrathful eyes grew dull and
rayless; his limbs lay prostrate and unnerved, his
head resting against the wall, his arms limp and
drooping by his side. I approached him slowly
and cautiously; he seemed cast into a profound
slumber.

"You are at my mercy now!" said I.

He moved his head as in sign of deprecating
submission.

"You hear and understand me? Speak!"

His lips faintly muttered "Yes."

"I command you to answer truly the
questions I shall address to you."

"I must, while yet sensible of the power that
has passed to your hand."

"Is it by some occult magnetic property in
this wand that you have exercised so demoniac
an influence over a creature so pure as Lilian
Ashleigh?"