The footsteps stopped in the hall, although for a second I could not tell them from the beating of my heart. They paused there. No doubt the intruder was on the same errand I was. He was studying the hall and the small table. Then they commenced again, going away into the living room. Again silence. I crept from behind the door into the tiny shower stall, letting the curtain fall behind me. If I squatted over the drain and tilted my head down I could see about four feet out below the edge of the curtain. What did I have to defend myself with? Not a damn thing. I took out my briar pipe and my Zippo lighter, the only objects of hardness and substance I had on me. Pretty poor equipment against a hoodlum. I held the lighter in my left fist; I grasped the pipe by the bowl so that the stem stuck out straight ahead, like a pistol barrel. It was the best I could do.
The footfalls came again, louder now,. and stopped right outside the bathroom door. I heard the door creak a bit, then stop. The footsteps continued down the hall to the kitchen, then over to the bedroom. Was the guy going to search there? If so, he'd find the broken windowpane and the big screwdriver I'd been stupid enough to leave there. And he'd know, as if the open front door hadn't already told him. Real smart, Adams. I knew there was more than a good chance that I could be killed in a few minutes. I tried to make myself accept this by arguing that anyone so stupid deserved to die, as part of the Divine Plan, in much the same way that those who are stupid enough to explore underwater caves deserve to drown.
This was supposed to make me feel better, but it wasn't working.
Faint voices came to me in the shower stall. It was probably the two men talking. From everything I had heard, it seemed that they did not suspect I was in the apartment now; they probably had surmised that the entry had been made earlier. If I could only get out…
I pushed the curtain aside and slipped out of the stall, heading for the door. I had the door partly opened when I heard the footsteps returning. I jumped back into the stall and noticed that the curtain now was not back straight. There was an inch-wide gap along one side, through which I could peer. The footsteps passed back down the hall and stopped near the front door again. I was beginning to know this little apartment like the back of my hand. The intruder was again studying the hall. No doubt now about what he was after. I began to breathe easier; it was pretty clear he was on his way out, They had not seen my car, and both would depart soon, leaving me to creep down the stairs again and leave.
I heard the footsteps again, finally. But they were getting louder; he was coming back.
I saw the same glove slide around the side of the door like a moray eel slithering out of its lair, and swing it open. The quick glance I got through the tiny slit was enough to see the trenchcoat, the hat, and the glasses of our old friend the wall-smasher from the mill building scarcely a mile distant. And almost instantly a change came over me; all the fear turned to anger. I remembered Mary unconscious in the mill yard. I remembered the way he'd shot at us. I didn't like the skulker in the raincoat, hat, and glasses. I didn't like him at all…
As the gloved hand appeared at the curtain's top I drew back my left foot as far as possible and steadied myself by pushing my hands (both of which held objects) lightly against the metal sides of the narrow stall.
The curtain was drawn back. A face stared at me from two feet away. I realized just before I began my kick that the man wore very thick glasses.
My foot shot upward toward his groin as fast and hard as I could make it travel. I connected, and saw his mouth widen. He had begun to scream from fright when he saw me, but it turned to agony half a second later. I thrust my right arm forward in a short, snappy punch. I was aiming for anywhere on his face, but as it happened I drove the pipestem smack into his open mouth and halfway down his throat. Before he could recover from this unpleasant duo, I stepped out of the stall and swung my left hand around in a hook to the side of his head. The rectangular steel lighter helped give the punch more authority, and I had enough adrenalin going to. give it some oomph, but I don't think I hurt him much. I just can't throw a punch worth a damn.
He bent over double, shuffling backward in very short dance steps, and let out a gurgling bellow that was half the dry heaves. Old Four-Eyes wasn't having much fun, and I was glad. I cocked my right forearm tight and came down with the point of my elbow on the nape of his neck, and that finished him.
But just as I was feeling proud of myself, I heard a loud rushing and stomping on the stairway, which would be the watchman out back coming to help. Then the man on the floor, who I thought was holding his crotch, had produced a, pistol from underneath the big coat. I dove for it and wrestled it free, and suddenly was more scared than I'd been in a long time. I was now holding a loaded firearm in a situation where I might have to use it on a human being.
Kneeling, I closed the bathroom door all but a crack and pointed the revolver barrel through it. A dark shape came around the corner from the hallway, crouched low and moving fast. I could have fired. Perhaps I should have. But I didn't. I think I yelled something. The man hit the door with his shoulder, like a lineman, and slammed it into me. The thick edge of the door hit my forehead full force, and I felt also a sharp pain as the wedge-shaped metal latch piece bored right into the front of my skull. I fell back on the bathroom floor, then spun to my feet. The man in the trenchcoat was just getting up too, and before I could raise the gun he did a strange thing.
He grabbed his coat flaps and held them out wide. He looked like Count Dracula. He seemed to hover over me for an instant like a giant bird of prey.
And a bird of prey he was, too. Yes indeed, because he brought those big wings down around the sides of my already hurt head and I felt a monstrous, heavy thump on each side of it, like two wrecking balls swung from either side.
And then everything went away and it got dark.