A passage led to a large, low, almost pitch-dark room, where he found the baron on his knees, lifting the flap of a trap-door.
"Idiot!" shouted Sernine, flinging himself upon him. "You know that you will find my men at the end of this tunnel and that they have orders to kill you like a dog. . . . Unless . . . unless you have an outlet that joins on to this. . . . Ah, there, of course, I've guessed it! . . . And you imagine . . ."
The fight was a desperate one. Altenheim, a real colossus, endowed with exceptional muscular force, had caught his adversary round the arms and body and was pressing him against his own chest, numbing his arms and trying to smother him.
"Of course . . . of course," Sernine panted, with difficulty, "of course . . . that's well thought out. . . . As long as I can't use my arms to break some part of you, you will have the advantage . . . Only . . . can you . . . ?"
He gave a shudder. The trap-door, which had closed again and on the flap of which they were bearing down with all their weight, the trap-door seemed to move beneath them. He felt the efforts that were being made to raise it; and the baron must have felt them too, for he desperately tried to shift the ground of the contest so that the trap-door might open.
"It's 'the other one'!" thought Sernine, with the sort of unreasoning terror which that mysterious being caused him. "It's the other one. . . . If he gets through, I'm done for."
By dint of imperceptible movements, Altenheim had succeeded in shifting his own position; and he tried to drag his adversary after him. But Sernine clung with his legs to the baron's legs and, at the same time, very gradually, tried to release one of his hands.
Above their heads great blows resounded, like the blows of a battering-ram. . . .
"I have five minutes," thought Sernine. "In one minute this fellow will have to . . ." Then, speaking aloud, "Look out, old chap. Stand tight!"
He brought his two knees together with incredible force. The baron yelled, with a twisted thigh. Then Sernine, taking advantage of his adversary's pain, made an effort, freed his right arm and seized him by the throat: