The Mission of Poubalov — page 231: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

POUBALOV SUCCEEDS. 227 with a passionate shriek he suddenly extended his thin quivering hands and seized her violently by the throat. Taken by surprise, her nervous energy exhausted by the long strain and its attendant disappointments, Clara made but slight resistance. Dexter clutched her with the desperate strength of a maniac and pushed her back against the wall. What with the noise they made in moving across tho floor, and Dexter’s snarling curses, she did not hear the sound of rapidly approaching steps along the corridor; but just as the frenzied old man had pressed her against the wall, and when it seemed as if his fingers would lock inextricably upon her throat, Poubalov dashed into the room, laid hold of Dexter, wrenched him away from her, picked him up bodily, bore him screaming across the chamber and threw him heavily upon a bed. ‘Then he placed his hand over the old man’s mouth and looked around. Clara was now held hard and fast by another man, and although Poubalov’s eyes glittered with a fierce light, he made no effort to interfere. Paul Palovna appeared in the doorway, his weary face glowing with joy as he looked upon his friend restored at last to the arms of her who loved him. After a moment Strobel raised his head, and Clara, still embracing him, followed his eyes with her own, almost unbelieving that this meeting was reality, She turned her gaze with Ivan’s to where Poubalov sat on the bed forci- bly quieting the ravings of old Dexter. ‘“Miss Hilman,’’ said the spy in his deepest tones, “*you have been the hardest adversary Iever encountered. Last evening you gave me two alternatives of action. You told me to take you to your lover, or you ‘would pursue me relentlessly. You have made it a desperately hard task for me, but to some extent at least I have succeeded in evading both alternatives, and have, instead, brought your lover to you.”’ Clara turned her wondering eyes to Ivan’s for confirma- (C) im tion and explanation. Comichooks