He was sprinting down one side of the hall.
Suddenly there came a flash of light straight ahead. Ernol had
reached the outer corridor. And the doctor heard a great commotion
going on outside the door in the ravine; a smashing and thudding,
which filled the corridor with noise. Next second the door gave way,
and simultaneously young Ernol leaped into the niche behind the
thing which the doctor thought a machine gun. Another second, and he
had the device in operation.
From its muzzle shot a thin stream of fire, which extended the whole
length of the corridor. It lighted up everything with a bluish-white
glare, revealing a mob of men at the door. They fell back, yelling
with pain, some of them dropping in their tracks. And all the while
the apparatus was dealing, not a shower of bullets, but a streak of
liquid fire, which hissed and screamed like the blast from an oxygen
blow-pipe.
But it was all over in a second or two. A noise from behind, and
young Ernol started up suddenly, only to find himself in the grip of
a veritable giant of a man.
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