METROPOLIS filled with the sound of a dull thumping. It grew louder and louder, more and more violent. It deafened the ear.s and yet remained dull. . . . Gradually she realised: It was her own heart-beat. . . . If somebody had come into the foom, she would not have heard him, her heart was beating so. Stammered words of a childish prayer passed through her brain, confusedly and senselessly. . . . "Dear God, I pray Thee, bide with me, take care of me, Amen." .•• She thought of Freder. ... No-doo't cry, don't cry-I "Dear God, I pray Thee..... This silence was no longer bearablel She must see-must be certain. But she did not dare to take a step. She had got up and could not find courage to return to her old seat. She was as though sewn into a black sack. She held her arms pressed close to her body. Horrors stood at her neck and blew at her. Now she heard-yes, she heard something. Yet the sound did not come from inside the house; it came from far away_ This sound even penetrated the walls of Rotwang's house, which were otherwise penetrated by no sound, wherever it came from. It was the voice of Metropolis. But she was screaming what she had never screamed before. She was not screaming for food. She was screaming~ Danger-! Danger-I The screaming did not stop. It howled on, incessantly. Who had dared to unchain the voice of the great Metropolis, which otherwise obeyed no one but Joh Fredersen? Was Joh Fredersen no longer in this house? Or was this voice to call him?-this wild roar of: Danger-! Danger-! What danger was threatening Metropolis? Fire could not be alarming the city, to make her roar so, as though she had gone mad. No high tide was threatening Meh·opolis. The elements were subdued and quiet. Danger-of man? ... Revolt-? Was that it-? Rotwang's words fluttered through her brain.. In the City of the Dead-what was going on in the City of the Dead? Did the uproar come from the City of the Dead? Was destruction welling up from the depths?
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