One short guttural exclamation paid tribute to the accuracy
of my aim; then I had the crossbar in my hand.
I threw one leg across the sill, and dire as was my extremity,
hesitated for an instant ere trusting myself to the flight....
A vice-like grip fastened upon my left ankle.
Hazily I became aware that the dark room was become flooded with
figures. The whole yellow gang were upon me--the entire murder-group
composed of units recruited from the darkest places of the East!
I have never counted myself a man of resource, and have always envied
Nayland Smith his possession of that quality, in him extraordinarily
developed; but on this occasion the gods were kind to me, and I
resorted to the only device, perhaps, which could have saved me.
Without releasing my hold upon the crossbar, I clutched at the ledge
with the fingers of both hands and swung back, into the room, my
right leg, which was already across the sill. With all my strength I
kicked out. My heel came in contact, in sickening contact, with a
human head; beyond doubt I had split the skull of the man who held me.
The grip upon my ankle was released automatically; and now consigning
all my weight to the rope, I slipped forward, as a diver, across the
broad ledge and found myself sweeping through the night like a winged
thing....
The line, as Karamaneh had assured me, was of well-judged length. Down
I swept to within six or seven feet of the street level, then up, up,
at ever-decreasing speed, toward the vague oblong of the open window
beyond.
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