METROPOLIS He held her in his ironlike arms, as prey which, now, nothing and no ODe could tear away from him. Close to the spire a ladder led upwards to the cathedral coping. With the bestial snarl of ODe unjustly pursued he climbed up the ladder, dragging the girl with him, in his arms. This was the sight which me~ Freder's eyes when he opened them and tore himself free from the half-unconscious state he was in. He pushed himself up and Bung himself acrOSS to the ladder. He climbed up the ladder almost at a run, with the blindly certain speed born of fear for his beloved. He reached Rotwang, who let Mada fall. She fell. She fell, but in falling she saved herself, pulling herself up and reaching the golden sickle of the moon on which rested the star-crowned Virgin. She stretched out her hand to clutch at Freder. But at the same moment Rotwang threw himself down upon the man who was standing beJow him, and clasped tightly together, they rolled along, dowu the roof of the cathedral, rebounding violently against the narrow railing of the gallery. The yell of fear from the multitude Came slu'ieking up from the depths. Neither Rotwang nor FredeI' heard it. With a terrible oath Rotwang gathered himself up. He saw above him, sharp against the blue of the sky, the gargoyle of a waterspout. It grinned in his face. The long tongue leered mockingly at him. He drew himself up and struck, with clenched Bst, at the grinning gargoyle.... The gargoyle broke.... In the weight of the blow he lost his balance-and felland saved himself, hanging with one hand to the Gothic ornamentation of the cathedral. And, looking upwards, into the inBnite blue of the morning sky, he saw Hers countenance, which he had loved, and it was like the countenance of the beautiful angel of Death, smiling at him, its lips inclining towards his brow. Great black wings spread themselves out, strong enough to carry a lost world up to heaven. "HeI. .. :' said the man. "My Hel ... at last
- '
And his fingers lost their hold, voluntarily . Joh Fredersen did not see the fall, neither did ·he hear
214
