With a stifled cry, Peret whirled round and made a frantic, though
futile, effort to open the door. In his slapdash haste he struck his head
against the jamb and dropped the key.
Cursing fluently under his breath in four languages, he fell to his knees
and felt around on the carpet. Failing to find the key, he sprang to his
feet and began to fumble on the wall for the push-button.
Before he could find it, however, the Thing again whispered its warning
of death in his ear and scorched his face with its icy breath.
Almost mad with terror, Peret threw himself backward and crashed against
a chair with such violence that he was almost knocked senseless. For a
second he lay still, to gather his forces and to fill his bursting lungs
with air. His clothes were wet with perspiration, and his body cold and
numb.
Expecting each instant to feel the vise-like grip of the Thing on his
throat, he staggered to his feet and made another frantic effort to find
the push-button. Remembering the flashlight in his pocket, he was about
to reach for it, when he felt the ice-cold breath of the Thing on his
face, and, in an effort to protect himself, he sprang against the wall.
What he had been trying for an eternity to accomplish by strategy was now
brought about by accident. His shoulder struck the push-button, and the
lights flashed on.
Almost blinded by the sudden glare, blinking rapidly to clear his vision,
he took a step back and swept the room with an all-embracing gaze.
Except for himself, the room _was unoccupied_!
It was, in fact, exactly as he had left it earlier in the day. The
room bore not the slightest evidence of having been entered during his
absence, nor was there anything large enough to afford a human being a
place of concealment.
As he stood stupidly surveying the room, the whisper of the invisible
menace once more sounded in his ear!
With a cry of terror, Peret whipped out his automatic and, blindly
fanning the air in front of him, pulled the trigger until the magazine
was empty. A picture fell to the floor with a crash and bits of plaster
flew from the walls and ceiling. Scarcely waiting until the last shot was
fired, Peret snatched the key off the floor and slipped it in the keyhole.
As he threw open the door, the Thing again whispered in his ear and
brushed his face with its clammy breath. With a yell, the Frenchman
precipitated himself into the hall with such vigor and rapidity of action
that he fell sprawling. Bounding to his feet, he grabbed the knob and
violently slammed the door.
“Victory!” he shouted, and his joy was excessive. “Ah, monster! _cochon!
boyeux!_ Thing or devil! Whatever you are, I’ve got you now! _Oui!_”
He shook his fist at the door and hurled at the imprisoned horror a
string of excited invective.
“Your hour is come. Your shot is bolt! Assassin! Ghoul! _Voila!_ how you
frightened me—me, the Terrible Frog! _Dame!_ I am trembling a little yet,
I think.”
A number of doors along the corridor opened, and men and women in night
attire stuck their heads out cautiously.
“I say, old top, what’s coming off?” asked one of the startled
individuals, catching sight of Peret.
“Nothing,” shouted Peret, and wiped the dew from his forehead.
“You are drunk,” said another man, disgusted. “Go to bed. You are keeping
everybody awake.”
“You’re a liar!” yelled Peret, and the other, fearing violence hastily
closed the door.
Pinching his arm to assure himself that he was not the victim of a
nightmare, Peret tried the doorknob to see if the night-latch had, by any
ill chance, failed to spring. Having reassured himself on this point, he
turned and, taking the steps four at a time, dashed down the stairs.
Scaring the now thoroughly-awake elevator boy nearly out of his senses
with his wild gestures and still wilder appearance, Peret careened
into a telephone booth, and, after being connected with the police
headquarters, barked into the receiver a few disjointed sentences that
froze the blood of Central, who had been listening in, and made Detective
Sergeant Strange, at the other end of the wire, drop the receiver and
bellow an order that brought everybody within hearing distance to their
feet.
Whereupon Peret, having heard the order as plainly as if he had been in
Strange’s office, reeled out into the lobby and collapsed in a chair to
await the arrival of the homicide squad.
_CHAPTER VII._