I was fairly caught. His arms went round me like steel girders,
pinioning mine to my sides before I knew what he was about. In sheer
desperation I summoned all the strength I possessed and a little more.
Ah! I had wrenched my right arm loose; now we should see! I raised it
and managed, despite the close quarters at which we were contending, to
plant a series of crashing blows on my adversary's face.
The fellow, I must say, bore up pluckily beneath the punishment. He hung
on. There would be a light in a moment, he was doubtless thinking, and
when once that came to pass, it would be all over with me. But at my
fifth blow he wavered groggily, and at my sixth, endurance failed him.
He groaned softly. Then his grasp relaxed, and he collapsed quietly on
the floor.
Throughout the swift march of these events we had heard nothing of Herr
von Blenheim, a fact from which I deduced with thankfulness that he was
temporarily stunned. Unluckily, he now recovered. As I stood victorious,
but breathless, my cap lost in the scuffle and my coat torn, I heard him
stirring, and an instant later he pulled himself to his feet and flashed
on an electric torch.
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