Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/346

 painfully winging its way. Perseus might re- turn now at any moment, or at least a message might come for her. At all costs she must gain time.

He sat between her and the door; to reach the bell she knew would be impossible. Also he had carefully shut the window when he had pulled down the blinds.

“I wonder what he would do if I were to scream?” she thought.

Screaming might but precipitate the catas- trophe. He was watching her with eyes that seemed to read her very thoughts. Indeed, she scarcely doubted that he was reading them. There was a cunning look of prescience in his glance which almost paralysed her. Added to the craftiness of the madman were gleams of a super-intelligence. She felt as a castaway who knows that the light plank is sinking be- neath him.

Perhaps some of this horror showed itself in her face. Certain it is that a curiously trium- phant smile played over his pallid features.

' He nestled more comfortably into the corner of the sofa as though the better to enjoy the sensation.

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