ket; he grasped a handful of shuttles—and his gray face was turned upward as he bent. Then the red-striped convict turned upon the garotter.
The strangler’s eyes widened, and into them came a great horror. Still bowed down, he looked up into the eyes of the other; little drops of sweat welled out upon his gray forehead; his bent limbs strove to straighten———
And then the red-striped convict sprang. And as he sprang 9009 saw his right hand go up from his waist-band and flash above his head clutching a long heavy knife of gray-brown steel. The garotter was still striving to rise, and as he strove, the red-striped convict was upon him. He was upon him like a boy playing leap-frog. His two hands, with a crunching sound, sank into the garotter’s shoulders; his two legs twined themselves about the garotter’s thick neck. The knife in the right hand rose, fell, rose again, fell, rose again, fell; it moved up and down like a swift piston; the heavy blade stabbed and stabbed. And 9009 saw the red-striped con-
