“Dead?� he asked himself, aloud; then he bent forward and pressed his left hand over the region of Lynne’s heart.
He could plainly feel the beat of it, and he straightened up again—and it was then that he missed possession of the weapon and cast about him with his eyes in search of it.
Lynne was lying perfectly still on his back with his arms stretched out at right angles with his body, to all appearance unconscious.
“It’s under him, I suppose,� Lynne heard him mutter, and Mike stooped over as if with the intention of recovering it; and still Lynne had the courage and the strength of purpose to wait, for he knew how utterly impossible it would be for him to cope with Red Mike, under present conditions.
It was the one thing that he had feared in the carrying out of his plans; that Red Mike would insist upon regaining possession of the weapon at once, and it seemed as if such was about to be the case.
If so, Lynne knew that he would have to wait until there was an opportunity to attempt some other expedient.
But a diversion occurred.
The paper upon which Lynne had been writing, and which he had given into the left hand of Red Mike just before the instant of falling in the well-stimulated faint, was now on the floor, half a dozen feet away.
It caught the eye of Red Mike, even as he bent forward to recover the weapon, and he half straightened up again, muttering aloud as he did so:
“I might as well read that over before he comes around.�