Page:Randall Parrish - The Red Mist.djvu/251

 Rh "Never mind who told me. We are not discussing the affair now. Sit back straighter; there, I reckon that will hold. Oh! it hurts, does it? I meant it should. Let me see; there ought to be some cord in one of these drawers. Ah, I thought so; now I will make a good job of it."

I stood off and looked at the two of them, surprised at the ease with which I had accomplished the result, but entirely at sea as to my next movement. All I had done since entering the room had been instinctive rather than thoughtful. I had accepted the only course open, but the work had been done without plan, without conception of what must follow. There was a guard on duty in the corridor without, and, no doubt, another at the door of the building. Apparently there was no other point of egress, and to remain where I was would result in certain discovery, and that soon. My success was but temporary, and my peril in no degree lessened by what had already been accomplished. No plan, no hopeful possibility, occurred to me; I could but stare vacantly at my two prisoners, and about at the walls of the room. Raymond was jammed back into one corner farthest from the door, his face white, every bit of nerve gone, and a red welt showing where my grip had contracted the flesh. The fellow actually looked pitiful he was so completely