The lamp was tossed across the room, out through the loggia.It broke against one of the trees below.Philip began to cry out in the dark.
Gino approached from behind and gave him a sharp pinch.Philip spun round with a yell.He had only been pinched on the back, but he knew what was in store for him.He struck out, exhorting the devil to fight him, to kill him, to do anything but this.
Then he stumbled to the door.It was open.He lost his head, and, instead of turning down the stairs, he ran across the landing into the room opposite.There he lay down on the floor between the stove and the skirting-board.
His senses grew sharper.He could hear Gino coming in on tiptoe.He even knew what was passing in his mind, how now he was at fault, now he was hopeful, now he was wondering whether after all the victim had not escaped down the stairs.There was a quick swoop above him, and then a low growl like a dog's.Gino had broken his finger-nails against the stove.
Physical pain is almost too terrible to bear.
We can just bear it when it comes by accident or for our good--as it generally does in modem life--except at school.But when it is caused by the malignity of a man, full grown, fashioned like ourselves, all our control disappears.Philip's one thought was to get away from that room at whatever sacrifice of nobility or pride.
Gino was now at the further end of the room, groping by the little tables.Suddenly the instinct came to him.He crawled quickly to where Philip lay and had him clean by the elbow.
The whole arm seemed red-hot, and the broken bone grated in the joint, sending out shoots of the essence of pain.His other arm was pinioned against the wall, and Gino had trampled in behind the stove and was kneeling on his legs.For the space of a minute he yelled and yelled with all the force of his lungs.Then this solace was denied him.The other hand, moist and strong, began to close round his throat.
At first he was glad, for here, he thought, was death at last.But it was only a new torture; perhaps Gino inherited the skill of his ancestors--and childlike ruffians who flung each other from the towers.Just as the windpipe closed, the hand fell off, and Philip was revived by the motion of his arm.And just as he was about to faint and gain at last one moment of oblivion, the motion stopped, and he would struggle instead against the pressure on his throat.
Vivid pictures were dancing through the pain--Lilia dying some months back in this very house, Miss Abbott bending over the baby, his mother at home, now reading evening prayers to the servants.
He felt that he was growing weaker; his brain wandered; the agony did not seem so great.Not all Gino's care could indefinitely postpone the end.His yells and gurgles became mechanical--functions of the tortured flesh rather than true notes of indignation and despair.He was conscious of a horrid tumbling.Then his arm was pulled a little too roughly, and everything was quiet at last.
"But your son is dead, Gino.Your son is dead, dear Gino.Your son is dead."The room was full of light, and Miss Abbott had Gino by the shoulders, holding him down in a chair.She was exhausted with the struggle, and her arms were trembling.
