"I have got you now, you misshapen devil!" he screamed. "You are going to be worth at least two hundred pounds to me to-night."
Utterly taken by surprise, Nostalgo collapsed under the sudden and furious assault. Something gleamed and flashed in the uncertain light, and the horrified onlookers from the window above saw that Redgrave had a knife in his hand.
"You poisonous scoundrel!" Rigby yelled. "Drop it, I say--drop it, or it will be the worse for you."
But Rigby might have been speaking to the wind. He yelled again and again, yet the two men below, locked in a deadly embrace, did not appear to heed; indeed, it was more than probable that they could hear nothing at all. More by great good fortune than anything else, Nostalgo had managed to grip the hand that held the knife and was holding it in a tenacious clutch. Over and over the pair rolled, like two hungry dogs fighting for a bone, their clothes torn and mud-stained, their features grimed almost beyond recognition. It was a grim and gruesome sight to the two eager watchers. A sense of helplessness, a wild desire to do something was upon them; but they might just as well have been fettered prisoners for all the use they were.
"If only we could open this door," Rigby sighed passionately. "If only that mysterious lady could come to our assistance."
It was like a prayer that was answered. There was a click, a sudden wide swinging open of the door, and the lady in evening dress came headlong into the room.
"Quickly, quickly!" she panted. "Oh, it does not matter who I am or where I came from! If you would not have the destruction of a man's soul on your conscience, come with me at once."
[CHAPTER XV.]
LADY BARMOUTH.
Quick as the whole thing had been, the action on the part of the fair stranger had not taken Rigby by surprise. He had half expected some development of this kind; he was ready for the dramatic moment, and took full advantage of it. Almost before the lady was in the room he had applied a match to the gas burner, and turned it full on. There was a quick, flashing vision of some one magnificently attired, for the white diaphanous drapery and the gleaming diamonds showed from where her wrap had parted at the neck. Perhaps she dimly comprehended the significance of Rigby's manœuvre, for she turned somewhat scornfully from the hissing gas jet.