METROPOLIS Dead. The girl's voice died away. The steps died away. Georgi loosened his hands and pitched forward. Freder caught him. He sank upon his knee. Georgi's head fen upon his breast. "Warn ... warn ... the town ..." said Georgi. "And are you dying-?" gave Freder as answer. His bewildered eyes ran along the walls in the niches of which slept the thousand-year-old dead. "There is no justice in this worldl" "Uttermost justice .. :' said eleven thousand eight hundred and eleven. "From weakness-sin. . . . From sinatonement.... Warn ... the townl-Wurn.... I" I'm going to leave you alone-I" "I heg you to.... beg you-I" Freder got Up. despa~r in his eyes. He ran to the passage, in which the multitude had died away. "Not that way-I" said Georgi. "You won't get through th~,t way any more-I"
o'
J know no other way...• 'Tn take you.....' "You Are dying, Georgi! The first step is your death-In "Won't you warn the town? Do you want to be an accesw sory?" "Cornel" said Freder. He raised Georgi up. With his hand pressed to his wound, the man began to run. "Pick up your lamp and cornel" said Georgi. He ran so that Freder could hardly folio( him. Into the ten-thousandyear-old dust dripped the blood which welled up from the freshly inflicted wound. He held Freder's arm clasped, pulling him forwards. "Hurry'" he murmured. "Hurry-there's not time to loseI" Passages-crOiSings-passages-steps-pass"ages-a flight of stairs which led steeply upward. . . . Georgi fell at the first step. Freder wanted to hold him. He pushed him away. "Hurryl" he said. He indicated the stairs with his head. "Up-I You can't go wrong now ... hurry·up-I" "And you, Georgi?-and you'-?"
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