Slowly, carefully, Darla inched her buttocks sideways on the sofa-bed, leaning slightly to hold the sleeping head on its pillow. Then she worked to get her leg close to the wall.
It seemed like an eternity, and it must have taken them at least a half-hour, but finally Darla's left foot almost touched the mirror on the wall. Ann's left hand turned, twisting in its bonds, until she could place the back of her hand against the glass.
Then she pressed her diamond to the glass and tried to keep up the pressure as she described a triangle on the slick surface.
The cracklingg hiss of the hard stone on the glass sounded loud enough to wake the dead, but their baby slept on.
Then Ann made a fist and pressed it to the center of the triangle she'd cut. She pressed hard, but nothing happened.
Then she moved away a few inches, and told Darla she needed help.
"You'll have to swing my fist with your foot. Can you see where it has to hit?" she whispered. "Yes, I think so," Darla replied.
"God! Be sure! Honey, we may not have time for a second try if the sound wakes him up!"
"I know. But I think I can see the exact spot. It's just that I don't know if I can hit it right on the first try."
"Listen, honey, do like a blacksmith – you know? Swing right up to it the first time, but just touch it. If it's the right place, then hit it hard on the next swing. Like a golf ball on the tee, okay?"
"Okay."
Gingerly, the foot and hand moved out, then swung against the glass. It touched, but the hammer of flesh started to shake, and Darla rested her foot on the bed.
"I can't do it!" she said. "If I swing it with enough force, I'll lose my balance on my hip, and his head will slide off, and that'll wake him up for sure!"
"Okay, honey. But can you relax your muscles and let me try to swing your foot with my hand? We've got to try something."
"I think so. Try it once."
Darla tried to let her leg become limp, and concentrated on the balance of her right hip, which held the crucial support for her dangerous burden.
Ann lifted upward, and from the first moment that the dead weight of Darla's foot, ankle, calf, and thigh rested completely on Ann's wrist, she knew there would be no second swing. It was too much weight for the leverage she had. "First time or nothing, honey – pray!" she said.
She swung, and Darla's leg moved dangerously far, making the sleeping head tilt slightly. But as Ann's balled fist struck the glass, there was a sharp crack.
The hand and foot rested on the bed, and Ann tried to see if the piece had fallen out. No! It was still in place.
Then, as she looked at it, it dropped onto the bed! Both of them sighed and tried to catch their breaths. Then Ann got the glass in her fingers and turned it around, arching it back toward her wrist.
At first she thought the piece was too small – that there wouldn't be enough reach. But she managed to get a shorter grip on the sharp glass, and then she had its edge against the cords.
In seconds, she had freed that hand and Darla's leg. Next problem was what to do first.
She could hold the glass against Guiyesse's throat and make him stay still until Chuck came. But he might be crazy enough to try to out jump her, and she'd have to cut his throat. The thought was too much for her.
And when she visualized the gendarmerie pouring into the house and seeing the scene on the sofa-bed, she had another reason to play the longshot.
Carefully, she turned toward her right, pivoting slowly onto her right shoulder, while raising her left hand with the glass triangle over and across the legs which lay on top of her. She had to got the glass over the right spot, or it would fall on the floor, or else somewhere out of reach of hercaptive right hand.
Just as she thought she was poised over exactly the right spot, Guiyesse stirred, and the glass crashed onto the nearby lamp-table.
There was a loud noise, like a plank cracking in two, and then Guiyesse was once more a dead weight on top of the two. There were heavy footsteps, moving swiftly away from them, and then the sound of the French windows opening and slamming.
"What happened?" asked Ann, too frightened to move, although she knew somehow that Guiyesse was not conscious.
"It was Le Boeuf," Darla said in a hushed voice. "He came in the hall doorway just as the glass fell. He hit our crazy friend on the back of the neck with his fist, just as his head was coming up. The way it fell back down, I think his neck's broken."
"Let's see if we can get out of here," said Ann.
They managed to roll Guiyesse off onto the floor. Then Ann cut another triangle of glass and popped it out onto the bed. She cut her ankles loose, then the other wrist. It didn't take long for her to free Darla.
"Get dressed, and hurry!" Ann said. She was worrying about Tommy, and wondered what might have happened if the prisoners had all escaped.
Darla was even more worried about her father. She hadn't told her mother that the Moroccan had scooped up the gun from the lamp table. If he ran into anyone on his way out, he might have to shoot to kill. And C. Eldon Fleming could arrive at anytime.