Part 10 (2/2)

Those moments were some of the worst I ever spent I was absolutely and utterly baffled, like a rat in a trap There seeo back to London and tell Sir Walter the game was up And that was about as bitter as death

He saw hed 'Does your heart fail you, lish? I will tell you one thing for your co in the world to be feared except me Fail, and you have cause to shi+ver Play me false and you had far better never have been born'

His ugly sneering face was close above ripped et if I ot at Loos was a shrapnel bullet lon at the back of h, but I had pains there on a cold day His fingers found the place and it hurt like hell

There is a very narrow line between despair and black rage I had about given up the gaain He e in my eyes, for his own became cruel

'The weasel would like to bite,' he cried 'But the poor weasel has found its master Stand still, vermin Smile, look pleasant, or I will make pulp of you Do you dare to frown at me?'

I shutin my throat and could not have uttered a syllable if I had tried

Then he let ave him my left between the eyes

For a second he did not realize what had happened, for I don't suppose anyone had dared to lift a hand to him since he was a child He blinked at rew as red as fire

'God in heaven,' he said quietly 'I a hi hied the attack I was quite calorilla's reach and could give me at least a couple of stone He wasn't soft either, but looked as hard as granite I was only just fro He would certainly killto prevent hirips, for he could have squeezed in s than hiht ht a bit, but there is no art on earth which can prevent a biga lesser one That was the danger

Backwards and forwards we padded on the soft carpet He had no notion of guarding hiood fes

Then I saw a queer thing Every tiuessed the reason for that He had gone through life keeping the crown of the causeway, and nobody had ever stood up to hi chalk, but he was a bully, and had never been struck in his life He was getting struck now in real earnest, and he didn't like it He had lost his bearings and was growing as mad as a hatter

I kept half an eye on the clock I was hopeful now, and was looking for the right kind of chance The risk was that I ht tire sooner than him and be at his otten If you are fighting a man who means to kill you, he will be apt to down you unless you aot to allow for that Suddenly, when I atching his eyes, he launched a otBut by thesidehen he let out, and his heavy boot just grazed h

It was the place where ed, and for a second I was sick with pain and stu in ain

I got a wonderful power froe of mine I felt I couldn't tire, and I danced round and dotted his face till it was streaood to an to snort now and his breath calish, 'I' out of you,' but he didn't knohat I was saying

Then at last he gave me my chance He half tripped over a little table and his face stuck forward I got hiht I possessed behind the blow He cru a la china jar in two His head, I remember, lay under the escritoire from which he had taken my passport

I picked up the key and unlocked the door In one of the gilded er had coainst Stumm He was a ht hie But for all that he and his kind were back numbers

I stepped out of the room, locked the door behind e of my travels

CHAPTER SEVEN

Christ depended on whether the servant was in the hall I had put Stumm to sleep for a bit, but I couldn't flatterbe quiet, and when he caet out of the house without a one to bed I was done