Again he was being pushed aside when another man came rushing in.
"The police!" he cried. And at the same instant we heard a loud peremptory knocking at one of the street doors below.
In a moment panic held every man in the room in its thrall. Dead silence fell on us.
But I doubt if any one of them was more utterly confounded than I or more desperately embarrassed. To fall into the hands of the police was better than to be shot down like a dog; but it meant a hundred hazards for me to be caught under such circumstances.
We all stood staring at one another like a set of wax figures, the common peril knitting us together in a bond of panic.
Then the knocking was repeated with even louder clamour than before.
CHAPTER XXV
AN AWKWARD PLIGHT INDEED
The second clamour of the police at the doors below brought me to my senses; and luckily I was the first man to throw off the apathy of alarm which their coming had caused.
If any of us were to escape, it could only be by the river; and I set about making a desperate attempt to get away by that means and to take the Baron with me.