12
I Witness an Experiment
PRONE ON the floor I saw that I was in familiar company.
The man who fell heavily on my chest was Fritz Adler. It was Karl von Emmerich who had knocked the pistol from my hand, while Schreckermann passed a noose round my ankles, drew it tight, and thus prevented me from kicking. I tried to hit Karl with my free hand, but as he was behind me twisting the arm he had collared into the small of my back, I failed to reach him properly, and my fist only grazed the side of his head.
"Not this time!" he shouted, remembering the knock-out blow he had received at Number 140, rue Etienne Dumont. "Quick, Major Adler!"
My other arm was seized, a rope passed round my wrists, and an instant later I was as helpless as a lobster on a fishmonger's slab.
All this time Beatric
