"They are
going to kill me, after all," he thought.
Before he had time to turn round and confront them fairly, they set
on him with a rush. He was driven headlong against the wall. "I wonder
how," he completed his thought. Nikita cried, with a shrill laugh right
in his face, "We shall make you harmless. You wait a bit."
Razumov did not struggle. The three men held him pinned against
the wall, while Nikita, taking up a position a little on one side,
deliberately swung off his enormous arm. Razumov, looking for a knife
in his hand, saw it come at him open, unarmed, and received a tremendous
blow on the side of his head over his ear. At the same time he heard a
faint, dull detonating sound, as if some one had fired a pistol on the
other side of the wall. A raging fury awoke in him at this outrage.
The people in Laspara's rooms, holding their breath, listened to the
desperate scuffling of four men all over the landing; thuds against the
walls, a terrible crash against the very door, then all of them went
down together with a violence which seemed to shake the whole house.
Razumov, overpowered, breathless, crushed under the weight of his
assailants, saw the monstrous Nikita squatting on his heels near his
head, while the others held him down, kneeling on his chest, gripping
his throat, lying across his legs.
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