Adderley paused.
"'So you have made up your mind to dance after all?' he shouted.
"The look in the girl's dark eyes was pitiful, and she turned to
me with a glance of dumb entreaty.
"'No, no!' she cried. 'No, no! Why do you bring me here?'
"'Dance!' roared Adderley. 'Dance! That's what I want you to
do.'
"Rebellion leapt again to the wonderful eyes, and she started
back with a perfectly splendid gesture of defiance. At that my
brutal and drunken host leapt in her direction. I was on my feet
now, but before I could act the girl said a thing which checked
him, sobered him, which pulled him up short, as though he had
encountered a stone wall.
"'Ah, God!' she said. (She was speaking, of course, in her
native tongue.) 'His hand! His hand! Look! His hand!'
"To me her words were meaningless, naturally, but following the
direction of her positively agonized glance I saw that she was
watching what seemed to me to be the shadow of someone moving
behind the flame-like curtain which produced an effect not unlike
that of a huge, outstretched hand, the fingers crooked, claw-
fashion.
"'Knox, Knox!' whispered Adderley, grasping me by the shoulder.
"He pointed with a quivering finger toward this indistinct shadow
upon the curtain, and:
"'Do you see it--do you see it?' he said huskily.
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