I cried aloud in awful fear, a wild inarticulate cry; and I caught one glimpse of his face, malignant and triumphant, as his other hand compassed my body and I was drawn down to him in a terrible grip.
My wrist was released, but his other arm, passed around my back, held both my arms so that I could not move.

His free hand went to my throat, and in that moment I knew the bitterest foretaste of death earned by one's own idiocy.

Why had I trusted myself within reach of those terrible arms?
I could feel other hands at my throat.

They were Maud's hands, striving vainly to tear loose the hand that was throttling me.
She gave it up, and I heard her scream in a way that cut me to the soul, for it was a woman's scream of fear and heart-breaking despair.

I had heard it before, during the sinking of the _Martinez_.
My face was against his chest and I could not see, but I heard Maud turn and run swiftly away along the deck.