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The channel of the rut, where she could see down into it between ear and shoulder, seemed full of the blood which had dyed the shirt-collar and the shoulder of the coat. And aimed at her eyes, like an accusing finger, there stuck out from the hairy neck the point of Dutch Fridji's knife.
And then she saw his left arm dart forward an arm that seemed, on the floor, to shoot out to twice its natural length and its fingers gripped Fridji's left ankle, jerking it towards him. The woman fell backwards, and Amaryllis caught her from behind. "Stop her mouth," said Dick from the floor.
And the girl, her long hands almost meeting round Fridji's slender neck, squeezed with all her strength, forcing the head and shoulders to the ground. Fridji gaped for breath. "Stuff her mouth blanket," said Dick, with his feet almost clear of the window-sill, yet keeping his hold on the ankle.
"Don't button it," he said, pulling off his necktie. "Cross the edges. Lift your arms." And he tied the dark green strip round her waist, knotting it in front. "Come on," he said; and, stooping, picked up Fridji's knife. "Where's the sheath?" "In her stocking," said Amaryllis. "Get it," said Dick, and unlocked the door.
Melchard doesn't want me to be killed," she said. For a moment Fridji's rage choked her. "I'll scream, and he'll come with his men." "With this I have sent him running from your door," cried Fridji. "It is locked this side, and you will bleed to die before they break it." Not rushing, but creeping, Dutch Fridji approached.
And the last she saw of him as she obeyed, was the back of the black head and the blue shirt, rising erect some ten yards up the track from the wood-pile, making themselves small behind the largest tree-trunk in sight, and the gently swaying right hand poising in its palm Dutch Fridji's knife. Then she obeyed orders, curled up in her musty lair, and prayed.
Amaryllis forced the corner of the coverlet between Fridji's teeth and held it there, keeping up the pressure of the other hand on the throat. "That's what they did to me," she thought. Dick stood beside her. "Change with me," he whispered, and slid his left hand round the front of Dutch Fridji's neck. Amaryllis stood up.
Hidden as the Lizard they called him hides in winter, he had seen the black doctor in pursuit of El Cojeante escaping with his woman that was clad in Dutch Fridji's skirt and the loose coat of a man. And, since he knew that God and the Saints will take the side of the man whom none can outwit, Pépe crept back to the house.
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