Then again we dropped, but slowly, very slowly.
"Five!"
I repeated the order, and again the air rushed against the blunt base of the car, yet not so fiercely as before. Then, all of a sudden, I felt a grip of fingers about my throat, and I was hauled from the lever and thrown back on the floor.
Gilhooly had a knee on my breast and was strangling me with fingers of steel. The fire of an insane purpose gleamed in his eyes, and he seemed possessed of the strength of a dozen demons.
I struggled, but I might as well have tried to rise under the thousand-tons pressure of a hydraulic press.
"Ten!" cried Quinn.
I did not answer—I could not, for my tongue was lolling between my lips.
"Ten!" screamed Quinn. "Ten—or we're lost!"
A groan, hardly audible, escaped my gasping throat. I heard a frantic clamor above and then there was such a jar and crash as I hope I shall never experience again.
All tangible life slipped away from me, and I collapsed into an unconsciousness that I felt might be death itself.