Dick had taken his eyes off him for a moment, and had loosened his hold on the butt of his automatic. And just then Hallo stopped suddenly, whipped back his foot, and tripped Dick neatly and successfully. Dick went down; before he could reach for the pistol, Hallo was on top of him. Exhausted though he was, Hallo outweighed Dick still as much as ever, and he was strong as well. Dick fought well, but the surprise had been complete. As he reached for the pistol, Hallo seized his arm and in a moment was twisting it around behind his back in a cruel hammer lock hold—that deadliest of wrestling grips, that means a broken arm for the victim unless he yields. The struggle was over in a moment, and the positions were now completely reversed.
Hallo had the pistol, and he was in as absolute command as Dick had been while he still held it.
"Ah!" said Hallo. "I said your time would come, Dick, my lad! And it has! You're in my power now! I could kill you, do you know that?"
Dick did not answer; he was thinking too hard. And there was nothing for him to say, anyhow. He had been neatly tricked, and, though he was badly frightened and ready to admit it to himself, it was impossible not to admire Hallo, so adroit had he been in seizing his one chance of escape.
"Yes, I could kill you easily enough," Hallo repeated. "And no one would blame me. I have proof that you are a spy, and it is a praiseworthy thing to kill a spy. But I shall not. I shall be generous to you, Dick, even if you did not remember our old friendship. I shall take you back with me, and turn you over to the soldiers, and they will try you fairly, and let the American consul defend you, and then they will shoot you."
A perfect frenzy of revenge seemed to seize the Hungarian as Dick maintained his silence.
"Oh, they will know how to make you talk!" he cried. "Keep still, then, if you like! I don't care! You would come here after me? You would try to make me pay back the money you say I took? Well, then, I did take it! And why not? I could use it better than your foolish family! Ah, Dick, it does not pay to monkey with the buzz-saw, as your father used to say! Does it? I am a buzz-saw—yes, that is what I am! Now, then, march! But turn the other way!"
"I'm not afraid of you," said Dick, breaking his silence at last and speaking in a contemptuous voice. "I think you're pretty brave, though, Mike. I didn't think so a little while ago. I thought you were a great coward. But if you have the courage to go to the army authorities after the destruction of the arsenal, you are a brave man, and I respect you for that, even if you are a thief!"
Hallo stared at him stupidly for a moment.
"Eh? What is that?" he said. "No matter! March! You are trying to bluff me, as you Americans say, and you cannot do it! They will know the truth when I tell them. They will believe me. They will not think that I had anything to do with that."