But there was a bulk in the
doorway formidable enough to be worth serious contemplation.
"What is going on here, little goose-girl?" asked the grizzled old man,
folding his arms round his oak staff.
"Herr Colonel insulted me."
"Insulted you?" The colonel laughed boisterously. This was good; an
officer insult a wench of this order! "Out of the way!" he snarled at
the obstruction in the doorway.
"What did he try to do to you, Gretchen?"
"He tried to kiss me!"
"The man who tries to kiss a woman against her will is always at heart a
coward," said the mountaineer.
The colonel seized the old man by the shoulder to push him aside. The
other never so much as stirred. He put out one of his arms and clasped
the colonel in such a manner that he gasped. He was in the clutch of a
Carpathian bear.
"Well, my little soldier?" said the mountaineer, his voice even and not
a vein showing in his neck.
"I will kill you for this!" breathed the colonel heavily.
"So?" The old man thrust him back several feet, without any visible
exertion. He let his staff slide into his hand.
The moment the colonel felt himself liberated, he drew his saber and
lunged toward his assailant. There was murder in his heart. The two
women screamed. The old man laughed.
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