The key turned in the lock and the bolt was slipped back.  Instantly Israel Kafka’s energy returned.  He rose quickly and hid himself in the shrubbery, in a position from which he could observe the door.  He had seen Unorna enter before and had of course heard her cry before the Wanderer had carried her away, and he had believed that she had wished to face him, either with the intention of throwing herself upon his mercy or in the hope of dominating him with her eyes as she had so often done before.  Of course, he had no means of knowing that she had already left the house.  He imagined that the Wanderer had gone and that Unorna, being freed from his restraint, was about to enter the place again.  The door opened and the three men came in.  Kafka’s first idea, on seeing himself disappointed, was that they had come to take him into custody, and his first impulse was to elude them.

The Wanderer entered first, tall, stately, indifferent, the quick glance of his deep eyes alone betraying that he was looking for some one.  Next came Keyork Arabian, muffled still in his furs, turning his head sharply from side to side in the midst of the sable collar that half buried it, and evidently nervous.  Last of all the Individual, who had divested himself of his outer coat and whose powerful proportions did not escape Israel Kafka’s observation.  It was clear that if there were a struggle it could have but one issue.  Kafka would be overpowered.  His knowledge of the disposition of the plants and trees offered him a hope of escape.  The three men had entered the conservatory, and if he could reach the door before they noticed him, he could lock it upon them, as it had been locked upon himself.  He could hear their footsteps on the marble pavement very near him, and he caught glimpses of their moving figures through the thick leaves.

With cat-like tread he glided along in the shadows of the foliage until he could see the door.  From the entrance an open way was left in a straight line towards the middle of the hall, down which his pursuers were still slowly walking.  He must cross an open space in the line of their vision in order to get out, and he calculated the distance to be traversed, while listening to their movements, until he felt sure that they were so far from the door as not to be able to reach him.  Then he made his attempt, darting across the smooth pavement with his knife in his hand.  There was no one in the way.

Then came a violent shock and he was held as in a vice, so tightly that he could not believe himself in the arms of a human being.  His captors had anticipated that he would try to escape and has posted the Individual in the shadow of a tree near the doorway.  The deaf and dumb man had received his instructions by means of a couple of quick signs, and not a whisper had betrayed the measures taken.  Kafka struggled desperately, for he was within three feet of the door and still believed an escape possible.  He tried