A man seized me by the shoulder, and I drove my fist into his face. Two others leaped on me. I cracked the skull of one with my crowbar, and broke the arm of the second. Hugh in front of me was driving his opponents down the stairs. I heard Nikka exclaim once, then a gasp--and a light flashed, three lights flashed. Hugh had cleared a space, but went down as I looked, throttled from behind. Nikka was just rising from beside a man whose head was crushed in. Then the rush began again.
I reached for my pistol, but did not have time to draw it. The attackers surged in from all sides. I had a fleeting glimpse of Hilmi Bey. Serge Yassilievich ran up the stair. I heard somewhere the snarling voice of Toutou LaFitte.
"Jack, hold them for me!" cried Nikka. "Must warn--King!"
I swung my crowbar in a circle, and backed towards Nikka's voice. He had shaken himself clear.
"In that door--opposite--reach window!" he gasped.
We charged and split a path toward the door of one of the rooms. As we reached it, a pair of gorilla-like arms wound around my neck. I tried to hit over my shoulder with the crowbar, but somebody caught my wrist. As I fell I heard Nikka's cry:
That was all. Toutou had me on the floor and was choking the life out of me. I lost consciousness.
When I came to I was lying on a very damp, hard floor. Several lights dazzled my aching eyes, and a number of people were talking in French.
"Ha, Nash is with us again," said Hilyer's voice. "I was afraid you might have done him in, Toutou."
"If you take my advice,"--I recognized Hilmi Bey's falsetto tones--"you will have Toutou operate on all three of them. He has ways to make silent men speak. Do you remember Rattner, the Swiss broker, Toutou?"
Toutou's answer was an almost indistinguishable "guhr-rrrr-rrr-rr" of rage.
Alive now to the position I was in, I opened my eyes wider and tried to rise. But I was bound hand and foot, and could not move. I could, however, see where I was. Not far away Hugh and Nikka were propped against the stone wall of a chamber, which I suppose you could call a dungeon. It had no window. The one door was open. The floor sloped gradually toward the center, where there was a square stone grating about two feet square.