to start the engine suddenly and let it seize his hand at the right moment, when he had his fingers between the cylinders.
‘Slowly . . . enough . . .’ he heard him say.
Kuba started up. The red-hot vice which seemed to have held his head round the temples, now twisted it round by the neck, and his smarting eyes looked at what they had not dared to look on before, the inside of the machine. He saw the curly head of the overseer, saw the fingers of his right hand, which were deftly putting the paper between the cylinders. The moment had come.
The spasmodic impulse which had twisted his head round, was now tearing his arm from his side and bringing his fist to the handle of the lever. But what was happening?
The white light of the electric lamps turned to a blood-red glow, the twists of electric wire became yellow, then red, and went out. All this did not take more than half a second, then there was complete darkness. Curses and shouts were heard.
But within this half second a mad thought rushed through Kuba’s mind: Satan himself had sent him this darkness, so as to cover the deed and its perpetrator. Who could say
