"Who are you, and what do you want of me?" inquired Jack, who became suspicious.
"I have a fancy to throw you into the sea."
"Madman!"
"Yes, if you like. I am peculiar at times. Come! how do you like the look of this?"
As he spoke, Bambino drew a long knife and made a thrust with it at Harkaway.
The latter stepped back quickly, receiving the point of the knife in the fleshy part of his right arm.
It was merely a graze and did not cause him any serious inconvenience, but it served to put him on his guard.
Being unarmed himself, he concluded that his best course would be to grapple with his assailant, which he accordingly did, dashing the knife from his grasp by a lucky hit and placing himself more on an equality with the cowardly assassin.
The struggle that ensued was short, sharp and decisive, for the superior strength of the robust Englishman soon told on the effeminate Italian, who, deprived of his knife, was not very dangerous.
Jack threw him on the deck and pinned him by the throat.