I picked up the man's knife and springing back as Dirk released him tossed it to him. He caught it by the handle in true fashion. Then naked as I was I faced him, and we circled round one another with eyes fixed blazingly to each other's eyes. Dirk stood aside, but ready to leap in if the fellow showed signs of attempting to escape. And indeed I think that was his purpose. For at first he didn't try to aim a blow at me; and once I saw his eyes turn for the fraction of a second to where the cliff dropped sheer from his feet. I believe he would have plunged and swum for it, but I drove in swiftly and gashed him down the arm. I heard Dirk's "Bravo!" but I knew I had done foolishly to wound and not to kill, for the fellow's anger was sharpened, and I saw the glow of hate in his eyes flash on me for a second as I had seen it burn against Dirk. Moreover, he began to press me, and I had to give ground. Twice he lunged in, but I caught his wrist in time and sprang away. And in my turn I feinted and struck, but he was too quick for me. I began to feel he was a master of knife-work such as I had never seen before. My father had been quick in our mock battles, and Dirk had shown me something of what could be done in agility and parrying and swift counterfeit. But this lithe, swarthy creature, who circled stealthily about me and sprang in and away with the lightness of a cat, was far nimbler and subtler than either Dirk or my father. I found myself breathing heavily as he leapt in and closed with me, and bounded back and in again before I had well recovered from the first assault. He kept me dancing to right and left and backwards and forwards without a moment's pause, till the upshot of the fight became at first sadly uncertain and then terribly sure. I knew that sooner or later he must slip past my guard; and since that first mistake of his I hadn't once touched him. Gradually I lost the power of reasoning the situation. At first I had been alert enough, judging for the spring in, watching for the attack; but now I found myself mechanically dodging and parrying, till at last I wondered what possessed him not to drive in and settle the unequal combat. He seemed to be merely playing with me, for I knew that my life was in his hands. Was he afraid of Dirk's vengeance if he should kill me? And then dully the thought came to me that he was waiting for the double chance, at one moment to strike and to escape. That meant he must drive me to the edge of the platform, where with a blow he might finish me and leap into the pool below. But I was determined to thwart him. I steered away to the rise of the cliff, but immediately he wedged me away from it, and I knew my surmise was correct. I felt desperate. Gradually he was forcing me to the edge, and I knew that once there he wouldn't delay the fatal stroke. Then with the fear of death upon me I suddenly grew strong again, calm even. I remembered Jenny, and said I would not die. I knew just what I would do.