Sudden realization of the trap stunned and sickened him.
"God! They've got me! Flint and Waldron—they've landed me, at last!" he choked. "But—but not till I've broken a few heads, by God!"
The match fell from his burnt fingers. Whirling toward the door, he rained powerful kicks upon it. He would get out, he must get out, at all hazards!
Suddenly the woman began to scream, with harsh and piercing cries that seemed to rip the very atmosphere.
Aiming at the base of the skull she struck.
At the third scream, or the fourth, the key was turned and the door jerked open.
In its aperture, three men stood—the two who had been so long trailing Gabriel, and a policeman, burly, red-jowled, big-paunched.