"Looks like it, Dave," was the reply. "When I piped his head in the light from the window, I felt sure I could drop him." "Well done. 'Twas a good shot. Shove your hand inside his vest, and see if his heart is beating. Then we shall know for sure whether he's down and out. If not, we must--" "Throw up your hands, instead, both of you!" Nick sternly interrupted, half rising with weapon leveled. "At the first move by either, I will shoot to kill!" Nick had foreseen that his foxy strategy must be very quickly detected, and he had resolved to take the bull by the horns, and attempt to arrest both of his cowardly assailants. That he was up against uncommon men, however, men of extraordinary nerve and reckless daring, appeared in what instantly followed, even under the very muzzle of the detective's revolver. As quick as a flash, before Nick's threatening command was fairly out of his mouth, the man called Dave made a kick at the detective's uplifted arm, so swift and accurate and forceful that Nick felt the bones of his wrist fairly crack under the blow, and the fingers of his hand gripping the weapon turned numb and tingling as if from an electric shock. "At him!" snarled the ruffian, even while he kicked. "At him, I say! Quick--the pear!" It was plain that these men were not doing such desperate work together for the first time. Both fell upon Nick like wolves upon a stricken elk, yet they found the detective waiting for them. Nick hurled one aside, unable to use his revolver, and grappled with the second, both falling heavily to the pavement. Then number one was at him again, and got him by the throat, with a grip from which Nick thrice wrenched himself free, at the same time fiercely banging the head of the other upon the stones upon which the terrific combat was being waged. An oath of vicious rage broke from the latter, and then he fiercely cried again: "The pear! D---- you, be quick! The pear!--the pear!" As if in response to this, Nick, who was panting under his violent efforts to overcome both powerful men, suddenly felt something thrust forcibly into his mouth. Still manfully battling with his opponents, Nick tried to eject the object, opening his jaws wider in the effort. The object, which was shaped like a solid pear, instantly expanded, and Nick could not close his jaws. Again he tried, opening them still wider, and again the pear-shaped object expanded and held them rigid. Then Nick guessed the truth. While struggling with might and main to beat these ruffians, he had been made the victim of an infernal instrument but seldom seen in these days, and one of the most agonizing and diabolical devices of man's perverted ingenuity. The object in Nick's mouth was a "choke pear!" This vicious instrument of torture dates back to the time of Palioly, the notorious French robber and renegade, when it was very worthily called "the pear of anguish."