METROPOLIS "Let the rats drown-I" "The children, Grot-II" Grot stood as if paralysed. ...A girl:' continued Freder, clutching his hand into the man's shoulder, "a girl," he said sobbingly, bending his head as if to bury it in the man's breast, "a girl has tried to save the children and is now shut in with them and can't get out-" Grot began to run. "We must explode the ruins. Grotl'· Grot stumbled, turned about and went on running, Freder behind him, closer than his shadow.. , .
", . , But Foxy Fox knew very well that Mr. Hedgehog would come to help him out of the trap, and he wasn't a bit frightened and waited quite cheerfully. although it was a good long time before Mr. Hedgehog-gallant Mr. Hedgehogl carne back. , , ," "Maria.:...l" "Oh Christ. , , . Freder?" "Don't be startled, do you hear?" "Freder, you're not in dar~ger?" No answer. Silence. A crackling sound. Then a childish voice: "And did Mr. Hedgehog come, sister?" "Yes-" But the "yes" was drowned by the tearing of thousands of steel cables, the roar of tens of thousands of rocks which were hurled up to the dome of heaven, to burst the dome and to sink. to hurtle downwards, causing the earth to sway under their fall. . Supplementary crackling. Grey, leisurely clouds. Distant rumbling. And steps. Childi:;h crying. And, up above, the door which was hauled upwards.: «Maria-I" A blackened face bent downwards; filthy hands stretched ou~: gropin~.ly. Mana-I
"Here I am, Frederl"
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