* * * * * Revel stooped and took up the weapon of a dead man. It was a good pick, with a longer handle than the Mink's own. He reached it out to Ewyo, holding it by the head, and the squire took it and stepped back a pace. "When you're ready, Mink." "Now, Ewyo." They circled each other, warily watching the eyes and arms of the enemy. "Why didn't you shoot me?" asked Revel in wonder. "Too unsporting," growled the beefy squire, his pale eyes squinting with strain. "A gentleman doesn't take advantages." Revel laughed. It was too ridiculous a statement to merit an answer. He made a feint, Ewyo parried skillfully. Then the squire brought his pick down in a looping arc. His reach was as long as Revel's, and the pick gave him an advantage. Revel jumped back, slashed sideways and missed. They circled. "The gods will win out," grunted Ewyo. "Their day is done. We are aided by the Ancient Kingdom." "Superstition! Things have always been as they are." Slash, hack, parry and retreat. "Not as they are now, Squire Ewyo." Ewyo dropped his guard, Revel came in to gut him. Too late he saw the trick, and Ewyo's pick sliced across his shin, a shallow cut that nicked the bone. He jabbed with the flat of the blade, struck Ewyo in the chest, and jerking his pick sidewise and back, tore velvet coat and satin weskit and drew blood. Ewyo cried out. Revel summoned his strength and began a series of flashing swings, which Ewyo parried frantically, backing across the grass. Blood spurted from cheek and hand as the rebel's deadly weapon glinted dully in blurred movement before the squire's eyes. Then the squire rallied, and his power being greater than Revel's now, if his skill were less, he drove the Mink back in turn. There came a blow that turned the pick in Revel's hands, sending its point down to the side; Revel recovered, but the squire threw up his arm and brought down his blade with such force that the off-balance Mink could not turn it wholly. It sliced over his ribs, drove through the flesh of his hip. Pain so hideous as to make him dizzy and ill knifed the Mink. In that moment he knew if he did not make one superb effort he was done. Conquering agony, he swung up the pick before Ewyo could recover from the vicious downswing. With a noise like a rock hurled into a rotten melon, the pick tore through cloth and flesh to lodge in Ewyo's belly, half its head buried in the screaming squire. Ewyo tore it from the Mink's hands as he fell, and writhed about it, curled like a stricken serpent. The Mink dropped to one knee beside him, head bowed with nausea and relief. "You were a brave man, you bastard." Ewyo, strong in his fashion as Revel in his, stiffened his body so that he could look straight up at his killer. "Not--especially brave," he ground out. "You see--Mink--I had no--ammunition--for the gun...." His pale eyes filmed over, and Revel staggered off, leaving him for the crows and worms of the valley.