Part 33 (1/2)

... Steps overhead; the little bulb over the mouthpiece labeled ”Mr.

Morse's study” goes out, and another lights up over the mouthpiece labeled ”Bathroom.” There is a jarring as a tap is turned on and a rush of water.

”That'll do, Zorilla. Two feet is quite enough for our purpose”--the voices are actually in the room now, much louder and clearer than before.

”You take the heels--steady, heavo!” and then a splash and a thud. We heard some one vaulting lightly into the bath.

”Now, Morse, I hold you up for a minute. I shall press you down under the water until you are as near dead as a man can be. Have you anything to say?”

”Yes. Give me one moment.”

”Ten if you like.”

Then there came in a calm, penetrating voice, ”Are you there?”

I reached upward and smote with my clenched fist upon the outside of the bath. I heard a muttered exclamation, a slight splash, and then Bill Rolston pulled over a lever, and half the ceiling of our room sank towards us with a noise like the winding-up of a clock.

Midwinter was standing in one end of the bath, which hid him almost up to his waist. His jaw dropped like the jaw of a dead man. Such baffled hate and infinite malevolence stared out of his eyes that I gave a shout of relief as Rolston lifted his arm and fired.

He must have missed the fiend's head by a hair's breadth, no more. Quick as lightning he fired again, but he was too late. Midwinter bounded out of the bath like a tennis ball, felled Rolston with a back-arm blow as he leapt, and fled down the pa.s.sage.

The loud thunder of the explosions in that underground place had not died away before I had lifted Morse from under the water and dragged him over the side of the bath.

His face was very pale, but his eyes were open and he could speak.

Truly the man was marvelous.

”The other,” he whispered, ”the brute Zorilla! Juanita!”

I understood one of the devils, desperate now, was still at large, and even as I realized it, I saw a ghastly sight.

There was a noise above. I bent my head backward and looked up through the aperture in the ceiling.

A man was crouching over it and I saw his face and neck--a big, black-bearded face, with eyes like blazing coals, but _reversed_. His eyes were where his mouth should have been, his nostrils were like two pits, and for a forehead there was a grinning mouth full of gleaming teeth. Any one who, when ill, has seen their nurse or attendant bending over them from the back of the bed, will realize what I mean, though they can never understand the horror of that demoniac and inverted mask.

I was pretty quick on the target, but not quick enough. The thing whipped away even as I fired, and there was a thunder of feet running.

I think a sort of madness seized me, at any rate I was never in a moment's doubt as to what to do. I shoved my pistol in my pocket, leapt upon the edge of the bath, sprang upwards and caught the floor of the room above with my hands.

The rest was easy for any athlete in training. I pulled myself up, lay panting for a second and then stood upon the tiled floor of the bathroom.

The door leading into the library was open. I dashed through to find the place empty, rushed through the hall and out upon the steps of the main entrance. And then, joy! A morning wind had begun and instead of a white, impenetrable wall, a phantom army was retreating and, as if pursuing those ghost-like sentinels, was the black, running figure of Zorilla.

I had a clear glimpse of him as he plunged into the tunnel leading to Grand Square, and I was after him like a slipped greyhound.

In Grand Square it was clearing up with a vengeance. There were gleams of sunlight here and there and the mist had lifted for about twelve feet above my head.

I saw him bolt round the central fountain, hidden by an immense bronze dragon for a moment, and then legging it for all he was worth towards the way that led to the lifts for the second stage.

The wood floor had dried with the lifting of the mist and I was doing seven-foot strides. I was seeing red. There was a terrible cold fury at the bottom of my heart, but in my mind there was a furious joy. With every stride I gained on him--this powerful, thick-set, baboon-like man from the forests of the Amazon.

I gave a loud, exulting ”View-halloo,” and the black head turned for an instant--he lost ten good yards by that. I whooped again. I meant to kill, to rend him in pieces. And for the first time in my life I realized the joy of primeval man: the l.u.s.t of the hunt, red fang, red claw, to tear, dominate and destroy.