Skill, inches, tricks of fence, all
things were equal when men fought as shadows in shadowland.
"What do you say, Goliath?" he laughed, and the grim face of Thibaut
smiled responsive.
"As you please," he said, serenely confident in his strength and
length of arm. "It is all one to me." Then suddenly looking round on
the leering, sullen faces about him, a wolfish girdle of ferocity,
he caught back his agreement and held it for a moment. "On this
condition," he added. "When there is an end of you, there is an end
of the quarrel. Your friends here must agree to that."
Villon agreed on the instant. He was all for ridding the world of
Thibaut, but he wanted to do it himself for the sake of the white
girl crouching on the stairway.
"I promise," he said, "for myself and for them," and turning to the
girl, he insisted, "Promise, Huguette; swear it!"
"I swear it," Huguette answered.
"That is settled," said Villon. "Now, friends, make a ring and dowse
the glim."
In another instant, the preparations for the combat were afoot,
Robin Turgis, angrily protesting against the desecration of his
orderly hostelry and shouting wild words about summoning the watch,
was promptly overpowered by Jehan le Loup, who forced him on to a
bench and kept him there with a dagger's point at his throat.
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