Patsy waited, however, until Nick had flashed the light on the other figure. The suspense was painful.
Yes, as he had suspected, the fifth occupant of the bin was the Jewish girl. The sheet which had partially covered her on the operating table had been wrapped about her.
Her bare feet and shoulders protruded from it and were as white as the muslin itself. She lay in a position which suggested that she did not have a bone in her body, so strangely twisted was it.
The detective bent forward reluctantly and drew down the sheet. He felt it necessary—after ascertaining that she was still breathing faintly—to see in what condition her wound had been left.
Her heart had evidently been replaced, for a bandage, tightly drawn, had been wrapped about her body under the arms.
It was stained with blood, and there was little doubt that the terrible opening had not been sewn up at all. The bandage was merely a temporary one, resorted to for the sake of keeping her alive, if possible, until Grantley should determine what was to be done with her and the others.
The vivisectionists’ victim was still alive, and that was about all that could be said. Patsy had seen enough. He left Nick to care for her and Adelina, and turned his attention to the walls of their strange prison.
Their place of confinement was even smaller than he had supposed, and the air was already stifling, and it was being breathed much faster than it could possibly be renewed through the tiny cracks between the boards.
Patsy’s head was already beginning to feel as if there was an iron band around it, which was being drawn tighter and tighter. The memory of the girl’s deathly pallor and the bloodstained bandage sickened him, under the circumstances, to an unaccustomed extent.
Patsy selected a collapsible jimmy from his set of tools. This he pushed out to its fullest length, then, armed with it, he attacked the boards at one side of the bin.