locks and bolts the door from that room to the hall. It's locked
now."

"What's the nurse like?"

The girl gave a shudder that seemed to Ford sufficiently
descriptive. Her lips tightened in a hard, straight line.

"She's not human," she said. "I begged her to help me, appealed to
her in every way; then I tried a dozen times to get past her to the
stairs."

"Well?"

The girl frowned, and with a gesture signified her surroundings.

"I'm still here," she said.

She bent suddenly forward and, with her hand on his shoulder,
turned the man so that he faced the cot.

"The mattress on that bed," she whispered, rests on two iron rods.
They are loose and can be lifted. I planned to smash the lock, but
the noise would have brought Prothero. But you could defend
yourself with one of them."

Ford had already run to the cot and dropped to his knees. He found
the mattress supported on strips of iron resting loosely in sockets
at the head and foot. He raised the one nearer him, and then, after
a moment of hesitation, let it drop into place.