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.