held her breach. This room was disrupted from floor to ceiling. But the other room, the anteroom into which she had just come, was not disarranged.
Yet there might be papers in the desk out there just as important as any in here!
Nellie whirled with the swiftness of a coiled silver spring. One room searched, another untouched! It looked very much as if she had come in the middle of a search, not at the end of one. And the washroom door had been open a little bit—
The swiftness with which she had whirled threw the bony man off aim. He had been bringing his hand noiselessly down, with the blackjack in it, when she turned with that lightning suspicion in her brain. The weapon missed its goal completely, and the bony man early fell forward onto his knees.
Nellie dropped her tiny flash. There was blackness in the room. But in the blackness, she remembered just where to grab.
Her dainty small hands reached for the spot where the bony man’s wrist was flailing, caught the wrist. She gave a curious sideways twist and a forward wrench.
Nellie Gray, so little and fragile-looking, knew more about jujitsu than most advanced instructors of the art.
The bony man spun forward and down to crash to the floor like an unloaded ton of bricks. “What the—” he mumbled, sitting up with a loud ringing sound in his ears.
It was too bad he spoke. It gave away his exact location in the darkness. With her soft red lips in a grim line, like a pretty teacher punishing an unruly pupil, Nellie struck again.
The edge of her right hand, little finger first, slashed against the man’s throat like the edge of a board.
The slashing edge caught him squarely on the Adam’s apple; and such a blow is nothing to laugh about. At any rate, the bony man on the floor didn’t do any laughing.
A sound like a squawk coming from a chicken with a ring around its neck split the darkness. Nellie repeated the slash to the all-too-tender Adam’s apple, then turned and started out of the place. It was a little more crowded than she had anticipated.
Her retreat, begun in good order, was destined not to continue so smoothly.
There was a click, and light flooded on! It had been turned on by a man with the stamp of gunman and crook all over him. He stood in the doorway, with an inquiring finger still on the light switch.
Then, as he saw his bony chief on the floor and a very pretty but very determined-looking blonde coming his way, he lunged savagely for the blonde.
That wasn’t bright of him, as it turned out.
Nellie caught his outstretched right arm, twisted it in a way that was going to make it very sore for several days, and jerked him on forward so that he sailed across the room half out the window. The window was closed, so that he had a chance to find out just how much a pair of hands can be cut up when they lunge through glass.
Nellie started a second time to get out of there. But when she had jerked the second man forward and off balance, she had swayed backward a little herself to multiply the power of the move.
She had gone backward just enough to be within reach of the bony man on the floor.
Still getting the loudest sounds possible out through his maltreated Adam’s apple, the man got a grip on one slim, silken ankle. He jerked.
Nellie Gray sat down.
The bony man sprang at her, hands flailing to smash her face in. She ducked, put up a small fist at just the right time and let him break a loosely clinched thumb on it.
But he got her with the other hand. And then she felt warm, sticky stuff smearing her neck as the second man’s bloody hands closed on her throat from behind.
That was all for Nellie.
She knew how the bony man’s Adam’s apple must be feeling, when, after an interval whose length she could not guess had passed, she opened her eyes.
“Awwph ,” she said, rubbing at her bruised throat and looking around.
She found herself looking at the bony man. He had been just about to kick her, but he didn’t when he saw her
Yet there might be papers in the desk out there just as important as any in here!
Nellie whirled with the swiftness of a coiled silver spring. One room searched, another untouched! It looked very much as if she had come in the middle of a search, not at the end of one. And the washroom door had been open a little bit—
The swiftness with which she had whirled threw the bony man off aim. He had been bringing his hand noiselessly down, with the blackjack in it, when she turned with that lightning suspicion in her brain. The weapon missed its goal completely, and the bony man early fell forward onto his knees.
Nellie dropped her tiny flash. There was blackness in the room. But in the blackness, she remembered just where to grab.
Her dainty small hands reached for the spot where the bony man’s wrist was flailing, caught the wrist. She gave a curious sideways twist and a forward wrench.
Nellie Gray, so little and fragile-looking, knew more about jujitsu than most advanced instructors of the art.
The bony man spun forward and down to crash to the floor like an unloaded ton of bricks. “What the—” he mumbled, sitting up with a loud ringing sound in his ears.
It was too bad he spoke. It gave away his exact location in the darkness. With her soft red lips in a grim line, like a pretty teacher punishing an unruly pupil, Nellie struck again.
The edge of her right hand, little finger first, slashed against the man’s throat like the edge of a board.
The slashing edge caught him squarely on the Adam’s apple; and such a blow is nothing to laugh about. At any rate, the bony man on the floor didn’t do any laughing.
A sound like a squawk coming from a chicken with a ring around its neck split the darkness. Nellie repeated the slash to the all-too-tender Adam’s apple, then turned and started out of the place. It was a little more crowded than she had anticipated.
Her retreat, begun in good order, was destined not to continue so smoothly.
There was a click, and light flooded on! It had been turned on by a man with the stamp of gunman and crook all over him. He stood in the doorway, with an inquiring finger still on the light switch.
Then, as he saw his bony chief on the floor and a very pretty but very determined-looking blonde coming his way, he lunged savagely for the blonde.
That wasn’t bright of him, as it turned out.
Nellie caught his outstretched right arm, twisted it in a way that was going to make it very sore for several days, and jerked him on forward so that he sailed across the room half out the window. The window was closed, so that he had a chance to find out just how much a pair of hands can be cut up when they lunge through glass.
Nellie started a second time to get out of there. But when she had jerked the second man forward and off balance, she had swayed backward a little herself to multiply the power of the move.
She had gone backward just enough to be within reach of the bony man on the floor.
Still getting the loudest sounds possible out through his maltreated Adam’s apple, the man got a grip on one slim, silken ankle. He jerked.
Nellie Gray sat down.
The bony man sprang at her, hands flailing to smash her face in. She ducked, put up a small fist at just the right time and let him break a loosely clinched thumb on it.
But he got her with the other hand. And then she felt warm, sticky stuff smearing her neck as the second man’s bloody hands closed on her throat from behind.
That was all for Nellie.
She knew how the bony man’s Adam’s apple must be feeling, when, after an interval whose length she could not guess had passed, she opened her eyes.
“Awwph ,” she said, rubbing at her bruised throat and looking around.
She found herself looking at the bony man. He had been just about to kick her, but he didn’t when he saw her
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