f-consciousness in her sight bordered
upon mania, mistook the cause of her laughter, so that a kind of
hell-born fury shook him, and he rushed at her, his mouth giving out
horrible and inarticulate sounds. And in those lightning moments she
could move neither hand nor foot; nor could she cry for help. And yet
she realized, as in some nightmare, that if once those horrible hairy
hands closed upon her she was lost utterly. And in that same clear flash
of reason she realized that for whatever might befall she had herself
alone to blame. She had touched pitch, and played with fire--and all
that men might some day call her great.

[Illustration: In that instant the legless man overreached himself and
fell heavily]

The speed for which the fury of the legless man called was more than the
stumps of his legs could furnish. He was like a man, thigh-deep in
water, who attempts to run at top speed. Yet his hands were within
inches of her dress, when daring and nerve at last thrilled through
Barbara, and returned her muscles into the keeping of her mind. She
darted backward and to one side. In that instant the legless man
overreached himself and fell heavily. Here seemed an inestimable
advantage for Barbara, and yet the great body, shaken with curses and
already rising to its stumps, was between her and the door.

XXXIII

For once the legless man had been deserted by the power of cool
reasoning. And his fury was of a kind that could not wait for
satisfaction. He was more like a mad dog than a man. And this, although
it added to the horror of Barbara's situation, proved her salvation.

Occupying a point from which he could head off her escape by either of
the studio doors, he abandoned this, and attempted to match the stumps
of his legs against her swift young feet. And must have overcome the
disparity, but that in the lightning instinct of self-preservation she
overturned a table between them, and during the moments thus gained
dashed into her dressing-room and locked the door behind her.

Blizzard vented his rage upon the locked door, splintering its panels
with bleeding fists; but in the meanwhile his quarry had escaped him,
and was already in the street walking swiftly toward Washington Square.
He leaned at last from a window, and saw her going. And in his heart
shame gradually took the place of fury. Why, when she laughed at him,
had he not been able to dissemble his emotions for a few seconds? to
mask his dreadf