Presently the manager's
footsteps could be heard returning. He stopped in his old
position, unconscious of the stoker crouching ten feet away from
him. Then the big dynamo suddenly fizzled, and in another moment
Azuma-zi had sprung out of the darkness upon him.
First, the scientific manager was gripped round the body and
swung towards the big dynamo, then, kicking with his knee and
forcing his antagonist's head down with his hands, he loosened the
grip on his waist and swung round away from the machine. Then the
black grasped him again, putting a curly head against his chest,
and they swayed and panted as it seemed for an age or so. Then the
scientific manager was impelled to catch a black ear in his teeth
and bite furiously. The black yelled hideously.
They rolled over on the floor, and the black, who had
apparently slipped from the vice of the teeth or parted with some
ear--the scientific manager wondered which at the time--tried to
throttle him. The scientific manager was making some ineffectual
attempts to claw something with his hands and to kick, when the
welcome sound of quick footsteps sounded on the floor. The next
moment Azuma-zi had left him and darted towards the big dynamo.
There was a splutter amid the roar.
The officer of the company who had entered, stood staring as
Azuma-zi caught the naked terminals in his hands, gave one horrible
convulsion, and then hung motionless from the machine, his face
violently distorted.
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