Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/156

 in contact with it, Dorgan took two quick steps forward, swinging back his right foot as he came to a stop. He kicked viciously, and with all his force, his heavy shoe striking the firearm and the grasping fingers at the same time.

The blow sent the revolver scuttling across the carpeted floor, under the black-draped table and out of sight again beyond the curtains of the materializing cabinet.

The force of the blow; also sent Keudell's body swinging half-way about, and brought Dorgan himself staggering against the table behind which Sadie Wimpel now stood. There his hand fell on the plaster-of-Paris skull which stood on its black velvet mat. He caught it up, irreverently, by the jawbone. The next moment he sent it with all his force against the half-turned body of Keudell, where it ricochetted from the heavy shoulder and crashed against the door-frame, shattering into a hundred pieces.

But by this time Keudell was no longer passive. He swung about and seized a chair. At the same moment that Dorgan caught up the clairvoyant's large crystal-gazer's globe of solid glass from its bronze tripod and sent it cannonading against his