Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/149

 METROPOLIS Above the gigantic city, above 'the slumbering city, the monster-voice roared: Danger-I Danger-I A barely perceptible trembling ran through the New Tower of Babel, as if the earth which bore it were shuddering, frightened by a dream, betwixt sleeping and waking...•

CHAPTER XV MARIA DID not dare to stir. She did not even dare to breathe. She did not close her eyes for quaking fear that, between the lowering and raising of her eyelids, a fresh horror could come upon her and seize her. She did not know how much time had elapsed since the hands of Joh Fredersen had closed around the throat of Rotwang, the great inventor. The two men had been standing in the shadow; and yet it seemed to the girl as if the outline of both of their forms had remained beWnd in the darkness, in fiery lines: The bulk of Joh Fredersen, st-anding there, his hands thrown forward. like two claws;-Rotwang's body, which hung in these claws, and which was dragged away-pulled forth-through the frame of the door, which closed behind them both. What was happening behind this door? •.. She heard nothing. She listened with all her 6enses-but she heard nothing, n0t the least sound.... Minutes passed-endless minutes. . • . There was nothing to be heard. neither step nor cry.... Was she breathing, wall to wall. with murder? Ah-that clutch at Rotwang's neck. ... That fonn, being dragged away, pulled from darkness into deeper darkness.... Was he dead? ... Was he lying behind that door, in a corner, face twisted around to his back, with broken neck and glazed eyet6? Was the murderer still standing behind that door? The room, in which she was seemed suddenly to become

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