behind the picture,' breathed Julia.
'It was behind the picture,' said the voice. 'Remain exactly where you
are. Make no movement until you are ordered.'
It was starting, it was starting at last! They could do nothing except
stand gazing into one another's eyes. To run for life, to get out of the
house before it was too late -- no such thought occurred to them.
Unthinkable to disobey the iron voice from the wall. There was a snap as
though a catch had been turned back, and a crash of breaking glass. The
picture had fallen to the floor uncovering the telescreen behind it.
'Now they can see us,' said Julia.
'Now we can see you,' said the voice. 'Stand out in the middle of the
room. Stand back to back. Clasp your hands behind your heads. Do not touch
one another.'
They were not touching, but it seemed to him that he could feel
Julia's body shaking. Or perhaps it was merely the shaking of his own. He
could just stop his teeth from chattering, but his knees were beyond his
control. There was a sound of trampling boots below, inside the house and
outside. The yard seemed to be full of men. Something was being dragged
across the stones. The woman's singing had stopped abruptly. There was a
long, rolling clang, as though the washtub had been flung across the yard,
and then a confusion of angry shouts which ended in a yell of pain.
'The house is surrounded,' said Winston.
'The house is surrounded,' said the voice.
He heard Julia snap her teeth together. 'I suppose we may as well say
good-bye,' she said.
'You may as well say good-bye,' said the voice. And then another quite
different voice, a thin, cultivated voice which Winston had the impression
of having heard before, struck in; 'And by the way, while we are on the
subject, Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to
chop off your head!'
Something crashed on to the bed behind Winston's back