"Either you take me with you to hell," I exclaimed hoarsely, "or I'll tear my purse from your entrails!"
Again the monster drew in his neck, spread his legs apart as if to brace himself, and gave utterance to another marrow-freezing roar. I remembered the dose of pepper I had received from him, and held the corner of my mantle in front of my face; this shielded me also from the sparks of fire he blew from his nostrils.
I was prepared for the second assault, and when the brute again shot out his head toward me, I dropped nimbly to the pavement, and the head swept over me into the empty air. Before it could be drawn back, I was on my feet, and buried my sword to the hilt in the creature's breast.
What was my surprise and horror to hear a despairing moan—not from the moo-calf's throat, from its belly—an unmistakably human voice.
"I am killed—murdered!" cried the voice, as the moo-calf fell in a heap to the pavement; and from the shapeless leather envelope staggered a human form—my comrade, Rupert, the student.
The blood was spurting from a wound in his breast—my sword had pierced clean through him!
"So, you are the moo-calf?" I exclaimed in amazement, surveying the wounded man leaning, gasping for breath, against the door of his father's house.
"The devil take you," he groaned. "Why didn't I kill you at once, when you were hanging from the window, instead of fooling with you? Now, the old man may play the moo-calf himself, and scare customers from the Jews' quarter! It's all up with me! Ho, Agnes! Mettze! Come quick! Summon the patrol! Sound an alarm!"
I saw a female form appear in the bow-window. It was Agnes. When she recognized Rupert's voice, she began to shriek "Murder! murder!"
I turned to fly, but Rupert, who had sunk to the pavement, weak from the loss of blood, seized hold of my leg—even in death he thought only of revenge! I jerked my leg from his grasp with such force, that he fell backward, striking his head against the door-post.