I began to test the strength of the bonds which held me, and gradually to loosen them slightly, as I tugged at the cords which bound my arms and strove with frantic struggles to ease the pressure of those on my legs.
The exertion brought the sweat of effort and pain to my brow; but I was nearly what they had termed me, a madman, in my furious desire for revenge; and although every movement racked and tortured me, I did not cease until I had so far succeeded that the blood began to flow freely once more in my veins.
Faint and exhausted at last with the struggle, I was lying quiet, to regain strength for a further effort, when the key was turned in the lock once more. This time two men entered; the gag was taken from my mouth, and I was ordered roughly to sit up.
I took no notice of this. It was my cue to affect to be helpless. One of them dragged me to the wall and propped me up in a sitting posture, while the other held the lantern close to my face.
A movement of the light enabled me to see his face, and I recognized him. He was Dragen, the man who had carried me off before.
"Ah, you know me, I see," he said with a chuckle. "That will save trouble perhaps, as you"ll know I"m not likely to let you fool me a second time."
The wild desire to take life which had so possessed me before now focussed into a set purpose that his should be the life; and I lowered my eyes quickly lest he should read something of the thought in my mind.
"You know what we want, Mr. Englishman, and what we mean to have. Those papers. Where are they?"
I made no reply, and he thrust his hands into all my pockets to search for them. A bitter oath showed his disappointment. I smiled in triumph; and this so exasperated him that he struck me in the face.
Then I understood why I was still alive. Until those papers were regained, von Felsen knew that he would be in danger of losing everything despite his present victory over me.
"You are a brave fellow, Dragen, to strike a helpless man."
He raised his hand to repeat the blow, but his companion stopped him.
"What"s the good of that?" he said gruffly. "You know what we were told."
"Hold your tongue, curse you," cried Dragen. "I mean to get them, and shall go my own way to do it. Where are they?" he demanded of me.
"What papers do you mean?"
"To h.e.l.l with your questioning me. You know what I mean. Where are they?"
"You think you can make me tell you?"
"I"m sure I can," he retorted with an oath.
"Try then;" and I looked up and met his angry eyes firmly.
"Give them up and no harm shall come to you."
"This looks like it, doesn"t it?"
"Don"t you anger me, or it"ll be the worse for you."
"You can only take my life, but even then you can"t save your employer"s; nor your own, for the police know all about that other affair."
"You"ll be short of breath long before you get a chance of saying any more about that or this."
"That"s only what I know already. If I were to tell you where the papers are, I might whistle for a chance of getting out of this. But I"ll tell you one thing. They are in the hands of those who will know how to use them, whether I am alive or dead, by this time to-morrow morning. Do what you will."
This infuriated him, and he seized and shook me violently in an uncontrollable frenzy of rage, and then flung me down violently on the floor. He caused me severe pain; but except for this, the rough handling benefited me rather than him. He had seized me by the arms, and the cords on my wrists were perceptibly slacker for the severe shaking.
My head struck the floor heavily when he threw me down, and I lay still as a corpse, letting all my muscles relax and breathing as slightly as possible, that he should think I was on the verge of unconsciousness.
He questioned me again about the papers, but I gave no sign that I even heard him; and when he kicked me and then tugged at my arms and lifted my head in the effort to rouse me, I made no sign of life.
The second man was scared at this. "You"ve done for him now," he muttered.
"Serve him right," growled Dragen, with a savage oath. "He tricked me before."
"But what about serving me? What"s the good of this to me? How are we going to earn the money, with him in this state?"
Dragen swore again and was aiming a vicious kick at my head when his companion stopped him so suddenly that he overbalanced and fell to the ground close to me. In the fall something dropped from his pocket and rolled near me. It was a small sheath knife, and to my infinite delight neither man saw it.
Dragen rose in a rage and a fierce quarrel broke out between the two.
This enabled me to shift my position un.o.bserved, so that I first lay on the knife and then rolled forward until my hands could reach it, when I tucked it up underneath the back of my waistcoat.
The quarrel ended without blows; and presently they drew aside and talked together in low muttered tones, the purport of which I could not hear. After a time they crossed and looked at me, and the fellow who had been protecting me from Dragen"s violence knelt down and tried to feel my pulse. He was clumsy at the business, however, and could not find it. "I believe you"ve finished him," he muttered and laid me down gently at full length and loosened the cords on both wrists and legs, and began to chafe my limbs to restore circulation.
"That"s better," he said at length, feeling again for my pulse and finding it this time. "Get him some brandy or something. But you"d better do what I said, Dragen," he added, rising. "If those papers are in safe hands, as he said, we"d better know what to do next."
The man"s evident alarm infected Dragen. "Curse the whole business," he growled uneasily.
"That won"t help us far. If you hadn"t been in such a devil of a rage, this wouldn"t have happened." Then he knelt down by me again. "Can you hear me?" he asked anxiously. "No harm will come to you. Can you hear me?"
My reply was the faintest of faint moans.
"He"s coming round all right. Get him some brandy and don"t let him see you, and we"ll have him round all right," he said in a tone of great relief, as he rose once more. "I"m for fetching him; let"s see what the others say," he declared as he picked up the lantern. "We must know what to do next."
There was another conference, and then they went away together, leaving the door unfastened.
In another moment I had slipped my hands out of the cords which had been so considerately loosened and with the knife I cut those which bound my legs. Then I kicked off my boots and stole out of the room in my stockinged feet, resolved to make a fight for my freedom.
The pa.s.sage outside the room was in darkness; but I knew in which direction I had been carried into the room, and crept noiselessly toward the front door of the house.
But there was a room between, the door of which stood open. I heard the voices of the men there, and one of them was standing close to the door.
To pa.s.s this meant a great risk of being either seen or heard, and as I hesitated whether to take the chance I caught fragments of the talk.
They were discussing the advisability of fetching some one or of going to some one for further instructions in view of my statement about the papers being in the hands of those who would use them.
Presently the man by the door, interested in the discussion, went a little way into the room, and I seized that moment to creep past.
The house had double doors, and the inner one was pressed back against the wall. I ran my fingers lightly up and down the outer one searching for the fastenings, when a general scuffling of feet in the room announced that the men were moving, having apparently come to a decision.
I slipped back and hid behind the inner door and held my breath as they came out into the pa.s.sage, talking excitedly.
The suspense of those few moments was more trying than words can describe.
I had failed to find the means of opening the front door; and if they went back into the room where I had been lying, I should be caught like a rabbit in a snare. The instant I was discovered my life would not be worth a spent match.
They stood wrangling in the pa.s.sage for a time that seemed an age to me in my excited suspense; and every second I expected one or other of them to go back to the room and then announce my flight.