jungle. The veins stood out at his temples, his hairy nostrils opened
and closed as his breath came faster, his long arms shot out and his
great paws clutched at my throat.

But I was waiting for him. As he came at me, I heard his clubfoot stump
once on the polished floor, then, from the radiator behind me, I raised
high in my arms the heavy marble slab, and with every ounce of strength
in my body brought it crashing down on his head.

He fell like a log, the blood oozing sluggishly from his head on to the
parquet. I stopped an instant, snatched the cigar-case from the pocket
where he had placed it, extracted the document and fled from the room.




CHAPTER XI

MISS MARY PRENDERGAST RISKS HER REPUTATION


The rooms of our suite were intercommunicating so that you could pass
from one to the other without going into the corridor at all. Schmalz
had retired this way, going from my room through the bathroom to his own
room. In the excitement of the moment I forgot all about this, else I
should not have omitted such an elementary precaution as slipping the
bolt of the door communicating between my room and the bathroom.

As I stepped out into the corridor, with the crash of that heavy body
still ringing in my ears, I thought I caught the sound of a light step