Then, unhesitatingly, it leapt for his face!
He groaned and fired, missed the horror, but diverted its leap,
so that it fell with a sickening thud a yard behind him. He
turned, staggering back towards the stair, and aware that a light
had shone out from somewhere.
A door had been opened only a few yards from where he stood, and
there, framed in the opening, was Lala Huang, her eyes wide with
terror and her gaze set upon him across the room.
"You!" she whispered. "You!"
"Go back!" he cried hoarsely. "Go back! Close the door. You
don't understand--close the door!"
Her gaze set wildly upon him, Lala staggered forward; stopped
dead; looked down at her bare ankle, and then, seeing the thing
which had fastened upon her, uttered a piercing shriek which rang
throughout the place.
At which moment the floor slid away beneath Durham, and he found
himself falling--falling--and then battling for life in evil-
smelling water, amidst absolute darkness.
Police whistles were skirling around the house of Huang Chow. As
the hidden men came running into the court:
"You heard the shot?" cried the sergeant in charge. "I warned
him not to go alone. Don't waste time on the door. One man stay
on duty there; the rest of you follow me.
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