"What the hell's that got to do with it, anyway?" he drawled. "I'm here on business, and it don't matter a cuss to me whether he's your long-lost brother."
"It matters to me though," growled the other. "I 'ad somethin' up against 'im before, an' now 'e's bashed 'alf me faice in with 'is blarsted boot. Taike that, yer swine!"
He lifted his foot, but before he could accomplish his genial purpose a violent shove from "Spike" Cooper sent him staggering against the wall.
"None o' that, you fool! Didn't you hear what the boss said? If there's any marks on his body we don't get the money." He turned to the man with the scar, who had watched the fracas with cynical indifference. "No good messing about, Jake. Catch hold of his feet and we'll cart him down straight away."
Suiting the action to the word, the two of them raised him quickly from the floor and carried him forward through the open doorway. With a muttered oath the third accomplice pulled himself together and lurched in after them.
All effective resistance being out of the question Colin made no attempt to struggle or cry out. He felt certain that death was very close at hand, and his whole being was racked with a sick fury as he thought of the easy way in which he had allowed himself to be trapped.
Through his half-closed eyes he saw that the room which they had entered was in a state of indescribable filth. The floor was littered with empty bottles and old newspapers, the damp plaster was peeling off the bare walls, and the small window, which apparently looked out on to the river, was thickly coated with grime.
In the left-hand corner the raised flap of a trapdoor was just visible in the gloom. His two bearers dropped him unceremoniously on the boards alongside, and with a curt air of authority "Spike" Cooper jerked his thumb toward the hole.
"You get down first, Jake," he said, "and we'll lower him through."
Jake accepted the order without comment, and, swinging himself into the opening, began slowly disappearing from view down the rungs of a rusty iron ladder.