His blows sounded as if they smashed bones.

Men fell heavily thumping on the floor where he rushed along.

Some one fired a pistol and by its flash they all saw him; but instantly the darkness closed again, and before they could get their bearings he was out and gone, his great hulking form making its way easily over familiar ground where his would-be captors could have proceeded but slowly, even with a light to guide them.

There was furious cursing among the patrolmen as they tumbled about in the room, the unhurt ones trampling their prostrate companions and striking wildly at each other in their blindness and confusion.

At last one of them bethought him to open a dark lantern with which the night guards were furnished.