Suddenly the noise ceased. There was a moan and the soft, crushing fall of a body. Ralph's face blazed up instantly.
"Now," he cried, "there is no time to be lost."
Geoffrey darted forward. He had the door opened in an instant. Mrs. May lay still and white on the floor. The atmosphere of the room seemed to have vanished. It was intolerable to breathe there; air there was none.
As the door fell back the room filled as with a sudden strong draught. Geoffrey dragged the unconscious figure into the corridor.
"No, she will not die," Ralph said coolly. "Had I intended her to die I should not have allowed you to open the door. Pick her up and throw her on one of the beds in a spare room. She will require no attention, but she will not attain consciousness for some hours. And, after that, she will be useless for a day or two. You need not worry; our scheme is working out splendidly. Pick her up."
Ralph indicated the still figure with brutal indifference. He would have shown more consideration to a sick dog. Geoffrey complied, and presently made the woman as comfortable as circumstances allowed.
Geoffrey had hardly done so before there was a light footfall in the corridor, and Tchigorsky appeared, still in disguise.
"I gather that things are well," he said. "Just now I met that she-devil's accomplices fleeing as if the Father of Lies was behind them. She was trapped, eh?"
"In Geoffrey's room," he explained. "When she was testing her apparatus I had the key turned on her. And she could not get out. I let her remain there as long as I considered it safe to do so, and her yells must have alarmed her confederates. Probably they have fled, leaving things intact."
"Probably," said Tchigorsky. "I will go and see."
He was back again presently, a pleased expression on his face.
"Nothing has been touched," he said. "I have removed the wires, in case of danger. We have the lady more or less under our thumb."
"It is an appliance for exhausting air," Tchigorsky explained. "You take a powder and place it on a hot plate. Directly it begins to burn it draws up all the air. The thing has been known in the East for thousands of years. Mrs. May applied electricity to give her greater scope. A plate of the powder was to be heated in the room of everybody in the castle when asleep.