ng brick.

I recovered myself on the instant, however, and with a final
malediction, darted toward the bath room. There was a sound of
scurrying behind its door; but I paused not for doors. Fortunately it
was a trifle ajar, and it went open before me with a thud. Also from
behind it a most unmistakable human grunt emanated, the sort of
involuntary notice a person gives when he has the wind suddenly knocked
out of him. Then right in my ears there sounded the most weird,
unearthly cry that I ever heard; it was positively uncanny. A cold
chill went through me from head to foot.

Events thereafter moved with such electric swiftness that the details
are all blurred.

I remember that I heard Stodger shouting encouragement, and his
stockinged feet patting the bare floors as he ran. As the bath room
door shot open and the strange cry shrilled forth, some object fell to
the floor near me. There was also a sound of running feet up the rear
stairs; which would indicate that my enemy was a host, and that the
main body was returning to accomplish a rescue.

In a flash I had reached forth my arms and grappled with the unknown
behind the door. That struggle would have been short, for he was like
a child in my grasp. But instantly I was seized from all sides at
once, it seemed. It was as if a dozen hands were feeling over me, to
distinguish friend from foe.

Into what had I rushed so blindly? Who was opposing me? How many were
there?

At least twice I was borne to one knee by sheer weight and the number
of my assailants. Both times I succeeded in shaking myself free and
rising again to my feet. I was warm enough now, heaven knows, and I
had the satisfaction of knowing that I was inflicting far more damage
than I was receiving.

I knew when Stodger unhesitatingly threw himself into the thick of the
fray. Good old Stodger! And there we fought, silently, furiously, in
the restricted space of the bath room, enveloped in a darkness that one
could almost feel. Again and again I collided with the porcelain tub.
More than once when I secured a firm grasp upon one of my unseen
adversaries, I picked him up bodily and hurled him with all the force
of which I was capable toward where I fancied the tub to be. But in
the riot and frenzied confusion of being jerked first this way and then
that, how could mortal distinguish the location of anything!

The struggle ended abruptly. Stodger and I were at a disadvantage, for
h