5For an instant d**k was dazed by what had happened. Then, springing to his feet in the blackness, he shouted with all the force of his lungs, and beat with this fists on the steel door. . . . He soon desisted. The only effect was to bruise his hands cruelly on the sharp edges of the steel. The narrow walls of his prison beat the voice back into his throat. A feeling of utter despair swept over him; sweat ran down his face, he trembled as with an ague. That was the most dreadful moment of all; that moment when he lost his grip upon himself. He seemed to fly into pieces. He was unmanned by the thought of slow and hideous death.
At first he thought he had a madman to deal with. He could ascribe no reason for this horror. He snatched at the thought of the girl in the outer office. She knew h
