One of the men
by the chimney-place must have wasted no time in leaping for me; for
at this instant, quite without warning, he catapulted on me through the
darkness with the force of a battering-ram.
The table, which I still held clutched with a view to emergencies, broke
the force of his onslaught. He reeled, stumbled, and collapsed on his
knees. However, he was lacking neither in Teutonic efficiency nor in
resource. Putting out a prompt hand, he seized my ankle and jerked my
foot from under me; the table dropped from my grasp with a splintering
uproar, and I fell.
Before I could recover myself my enemy had rolled on top of me, and I
felt his fingers at my throat as he clamored in German for a light. He
was a heavy man; his bulk was paralyzing; but I stiffened every muscle.
With a mighty heave I turned half over, rose on my elbow, and delivered
a blow at what, I fondly hoped, might prove the point of his chin.
Dark as it was, I had made no miscalculation. He dropped on me once
again, but this time as an inert mass. Burrowing out from under him, I
sprang to my feet aglow with triumph--and found myself in the clutch
of the second gentleman from the chimney-place, who apparently had come
hotfoot to his comrade's aid.
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