round the corner;
police whistles began to sound their warning in all directions; and the
previous silence gave place to a very Babel of noise. But Piragoff had
shot up a side turning before the sergeant arrived, and the persistent
clamor of the whistles told me that he had, for the moment, at least,
escaped. I turned away. Piragoff was out of my hands, and what I had
seen only made it more imperative that I should prevent further
bloodshed.

"As, once more, I softly opened the slide, the voices of the miserable
wretches within came to me in a strange and unpleasant mixture of
curses, blasphemies and hysterical sobs. They cursed Piragoff, they
cursed the police, they invoked death and destruction on every man,
woman and child in this nation of pigs; and between the curses they wept
and lamented. I had shut the damper of the stove before going down, but
the charcoal was still alight, though dull. I now arranged the stove in
position, resting the long pipe on the bottom edge of the opening so
that its end projected a few inches into the room; moving quite
silently and assisted by the hubbub from without and the noise produced
by the two craven villains. When it was fixed, I opened the damper, and
presently, holding my hand opposite the mouth of the pipe, felt a strong
current of hot gas pouring out. That gas would cool rapidly on meeting
the cold air, and then would fall by its own weight and collect about
the floor.

"My apparatus was now in full going order and there was nothing for it
but to wait. The noise in the street had subsided, but the two ruffians
showed no signs of settling down. They were now engaged in barricading
the door so that it could be forced open only a few inches, thus
exposing the attackers to a deadly fire. I was much obliged to them.
Their movements would help to diffuse the gas and prevent it from
settling too densely on the floor. Also, their exertions would make them
breathe more deeply and so come more rapidly under the influence of the
poison.

"The time crept on; the police made no sign; the murderers rested from
their labors, sometimes talking excitedly, sometimes silent for minutes
at a time, and at intervals yawning like overstrung women. And all the
time the invisible stream of heavy, deadly gas was pouring out of the
stovepipe and trickling unseen along the floor. Even now it must be
eddying about the murderers' feet and slowly diffusing upwards. If only
the police would remain qu