The prisoner figure toppled back against Adam's breast and the mouth opened hideously. The lean legs bent.
"You squeezed him too tight, Dammy. He's fainted. Lay him down."
Adam let the figure slide to the floor. It rose in a whirl of blue linen. Mrs. Egg rocked on the chest.
The man thrust something at Adam's middle and said in a rasp, "Get your arms up!"
Adam's face turned purple beyond the gleaming skull. His hands rose a little and his fingers crisped. He drawled,
"Fact. I ought have looked under your duds, you——"
"Stick 'em up!" said the man.
Mrs. Egg saw Adam's arms tremble. His lower lip drew down. He wasn't going to put his arms up. The man would kill him. She could not breathe. She fell forward from the ice chest and knew nothing.
She roused with a sense of great cold and was sitting against the shelves. Adam stopped rubbing her face with a lump of ice and grinned at her.
He cried, "By gee, you did that quick, Mamma! Knocked the wind clear out of him."