Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/12

 and before I knew it I was down myself—the only wonder is they did not kill me. I thought they would. You can see with what effect I was forced to use my only weapon,  this bag.”

“But surely the police—” I began, when he immediately interrupted me.

“The police? They would give me no help. You are an intelligent man. I need not call your attention to the fact that my face is peculiar. I usually hide it, but they tore off its covering, and nothing else was needed to set them upon  me like a pack of wolves. Are we almost there?”

“We ought to be within a stone’s throw of it now,” I replied, when it suddenly dawned upon me that I had made a mistake. Instead of taking the street on which the consulate was situated, I had unwittingly turned down the next one, and now it seemed almost too late to repair my blunder, for the mob had turned the corner, and, catching sight  of us, were rushing on like so many mad dogs, shouting as  they came in a fashion that was anything but reassuring.

“This is a bad business. We are going wrong!” I burst out.

I could feel his hand tremble as he clutched my arm.

“Don’t tell me that,” he panted. “You don’t know what it is to be differently made from other men. My friend, I have been through this sort of thing before—one cannot  always hope to escape.”

“Before matters come to a crisis they shall have the opportunity of looking down the muzzle of my revolver,”  I answered. “Look, here we are on the wrong street—we must cut across somehow to the next.”

“And then?”

“Then we shall be directly in front of the consulate.”

“It must be done. Look behind there—you can see we have only a moment. Shall we try this alley? It may take us through.”

The alley was a narrow passage between two of the largest houses I ever remember observing in Panompin. It was dark at the entrance and barely wide enough for us  both to walk abreast, but down at the further end a flickering light dimly burned.

Positively I can’t say whether I gave assent or not; I only remember that the next moment we were running  along the alley and I was beginning to fancy that we had