O'Grady, the American, the stump of a dead cigar between his teeth, shifted impatiently with every pause as though he would hurry forward the denouement.
Presently John Lexman went on.
"He slipped from the bed and came across to meet me as I closed the door behind me.
"'Ah, Mr.Gathercole,' he said, in that silky tone of his, and held out his hand.
"I did not speak.

I just looked at him with a sort of fierce joy in my heart the like of which I had never before experienced.
"'And then he saw in my eyes the truth and half reached for the telephone.
"But at that moment I was on him.

He was a child in my hands.

All the bitter anguish he had brought upon me, all the hardships of starved days and freezing nights had strengthened and hardened me.

I had come back to London disguised with a false arm and this I shook free.