by a curious effect of magic, the strong fear that had governed him
ever since his entry into the house disappeared in a second. Anger
rushed into his heart and his chilled blood rose suddenly to boiling
point. Putting the candle down, he took two steps back into the room and
then flung himself forward with all his strength against the painted
panel. Instantly, and before the crash came, the eyes were withdrawn,
and two black spaces showed where they had been. The old huntsman was
eyeless. But the panel cracked and split inwards like a sheet of thin
cardboard; and Shorthouse, pistol in hand, thrust an arm through the
jagged aperture and, seizing a human leg, dragged out into the room--the
Jew!

Words rushed in such a torrent to his lips that they choked him. The old
Hebrew, white as chalk, stood shaking before him, the bright pistol
barrel opposite his eyes, when a volume of cold air rushed into the
room, and with it a sound of hurried steps. Shorthouse felt his arm
knocked up before he had time to turn, and the same second Garvey, who
had somehow managed to burst open the window came between him and the
trembling Marx. His lips were parted and his eyes rolled strangely in
his distorted face.

"Don't shoot him! Shoot in the air!" he shrieked. He seized the Jew by
the shoulders.

"You damned hound," he roared, hissing in his face. "So I've got you at
last. That's where your vacuum is, is it? I know your vile hiding-place
at last." He shook him like a dog. "I've been after him all night," he
cried, turning to Shorthouse, "all night, I tell you, and I've got him
at last."

Garvey lifted his upper lip as he spoke and showed his teeth. They shone
like the fangs of a wolf. The Jew evidently saw them too, for he gave a
horrid yell and struggled furiously.

Before the eyes of the secretary a mist seemed to rise. The hideous
shadow again leaped into Garvey's face. He foresaw a dreadful battle,
and covering the two men with his pistol he retreated slowly to the
door. Whether they were both mad, or both criminal, he did not pause to
inquire. The only thought present in his mind was that the sooner he
made his escape the better.

Garvey was still shaking the Jew when he reached the door and turned the
key, but as he passed out on to the landing both men stopped their
struggling and turned to face him. Garvey's face, bestial, loathsome,
livid with anger; the Jew's white and grey with fear and horror;--both
turned towards hi