around me, which might have concealed a pistol. His big body strained as against bonds. Now his eyes were growing crimson round the irises, with a rush of blood which filled the big veins in his forehead. Slowly his upper lip raised, to show two big front teeth. Indecision held him strangled and furious. .. .
'Up above your head!' I shouted. 'High above it! Don't call out. Hurry!'
His lips writhed to spit out a word of defiance, but prudence intervened. For a second one hand trembled under the table. Then both of them were slowly raised.
'Turn around!'
He said, 'You can't get out of here, you know.'
I had come to that stage where the whole affair seemed pure, crazy exhilaration. My career might have only a few more instants to go; but in the meantime I felt like laughing, and pulses danced up and down my chest. So I stepped out from behind the screen. The grey room with its gilt panels and blue-upholstered furniture emerged in sharp colours; even the shadows had a hard outline, and I remember noting that the panels were painted to depict the loves of Aphrodite. Galant stood with his back to me and his hands raised. On the lounge Gina Prevost sat bending forward; she darted a glance at me, and in the same moment I remembered that my mask was still up on my forehead. I saw that her eyes held encouragement and triumph. She made a gesture in the air. She laughed, and the long ashes of her cigarette spilled, for she saw that I had no weapon....
I joined in her laughter. The only thing to do was to take Galant from behind and risk a rough-and-tumble before he could call out or get his hand on a weapon. I caught up a heavy chair. Galant spoke suddenly in
'Don't worry, Gina. They'll be here in a second. I pressed a button under that table. ... Good boys!'
The door into the hall was flung open. I stopped, with a shock at my heart. A yellow glare of light in the hallway showed white-masks, with Galant's upraised arms silhouetted against them. I saw heads above neckcloths - heads which seemed to rise from their necks, like snakes, and glassy eyes in the lamplight. There were five of those heads.
'All right, boys.' Galant said, in a low, delighted voice. 'Watch him; he's got a gun. Quietly, now! No noise. ... '
He had sprung round to face me, and his nose was like a horrible red caterpillar wriggling up his face. His shoulders were humped, his arms swung loosely, and he grinned. The blood-drum beat in my ears. The heads began to move forward, blotting the light and throwing long-necked shadows across its path. Their feet made a swishing noise on the rug. Gina Prevost was still laughing, her fists clenched. With the heavy chair in my hands, I backed towards the window. ...
Still that
Against the yellow light, beady-eyed figures leapt in a surge. I swung the heavy chair and drove it against the window. The crash of glass; woodwork cracked and the lock was ripped out. Dragging back the chair, I whirled and flung it at the headmost figure. There was a gleam on the light, and a thud as a knife banged into the casement above my head. I saw it quiver there as I gripped the sill, shielded my face with my arm against broken glass, and toppled out into emptiness.
Gold air, a rushing grey blur. Then, blotting them out, bone-cracking hammers driven against my ankles. I staggered against brickwork and fell on my knees, overcome with a ghastly nausea. Get up ! Get up ! But for the moment only pain, legs that would not hold, and blindness. ...
I was trapped. They could cover the house; I couldn't get out. Sooner or later, like the inexorable closing in of that circle of masks, they would have me in a corner. All right, damn them! Give them a race! Little fun. Groggy; must have hit my head.
I started to run, limping, along the court. The main hall! There were doors here somewhere to the main hall. If I ran in there, amongst guests, they couldn't get me just yet. Run! Where's the door? Something in my eyes; must be blood. .. . White-mask ahead!
He vvas coming to me, bent low. His shoes made a spatter on the bricks as he ran. Pain was flooded out in cold fury. I drew my breath through lungs that felt stabbed; but I was no longer conscious of anything except that I hated all white-masks, I hated all
The knife whirled out, his thumb on the blade. My left fist went straight and low into his wind, and my right came up ten inches, full with the weight of arm and shoulder, to the point of his jaw. His breath spurted and died in a gurgle. I heard him go down on the bricks with a sodden flatness like bones breaking. Then I was running again. There were feet behind me Sticky wetness had thickened in my eyes. Here was a lighted door. He must have been guarding it. I reached for the knob, for now there seemed to be nothing but a warm, glutinous wetness on my forehead, my eyes and nose. I tried to dash it away, but it only thickened, and my head was ringing with explosions. The absurd thought came to me that I mustn't be sick right in the middle of these luxurious surroundings.
A corridor. There was music somewhere; I was safe - I must be near the main hall. The enormous pounding of my heart split the very ear-drums. I couldn't go any farther, because I couldn't see at all. Shaking, I crumpled against the wall. The whole floor swung backwards and forwards under my feet, and my legs were like rubber. I groped for my hip pocket, found a handkerchief, and fiercely swabbed my eyes. ...
The minute a light flickered in, I straightened up. More blood was pouring down - my God! how was there so much blood in the human body? - and my very shirt-front was a mess. But there had come to me in one flash where I was. I saw
Desperately I brushed the handkerchief across my eyes, swabbed my forehead, and tried to straighten up. Rush the pistol ahead ? Yes; might as well go down taking a crack at somebody.
Into my dim sight swam a figure I could not understand. The figure with the weapon was a woman. A woman in a flame-coloured dress. She stood in the middle of a room hung with rugs. Her dark eyes were steady and wide open. I heard a dim tumult behind me; I heard somebody hammering at a door, which I must instinctively have locked behind me. This woman! - it flashed over me now - Galant's partner, the new owner of the club. ... The surge of hope, the sudden realization of a way out, steadied my buzzing wits. My sight seemed to clear, and a new breath rushed cold into my lungs. I took a step forward.
'Don't move!' said the woman. I recognized that voice. .. .
'I do not think,' I said, steadily - 'I do not think that you will betray me, Mademoiselle Augustin.'
Even then I could not help marvelling at the change in her. Seeing Marie Augustin at a distance, I should not have recognized her at all. The girl in dowdy black, with the shiny face and dull hair; and then this vivid woman! I was conscious only of the flame-coloured gown, and of her white, glossy shoulders above it. I found myself speaking to the gown, speaking swiftly. The gown; the ticket-booth at the waxworks, as though I faced her there and desperately sought admittance without money.. . .
'There's no time to argue!' I said. 'They'll be here in a moment. You're going to hide me. I -I - -'
Just behind me was a door with a glass panel, through which I could see the dark passage to the great hall; and now I thought I could see white-masks pushing their way through this hall as well as hammering on the court door to the passage. . .. To my astonishment, Marie Augustin came sweeping forwards. She drew a dark velvet curtain over the glass panel, and shot the bolt in the door.
