She reluctantly obeyed him; he stood and waited until the door had closed and he heard the lock being turned. Then he tried to force their presence from his mind because they were only a distraction that could interfere with what must be done. He had worked out the details of his plan of defense long before and he went slowly around the apartment making sure that everything was as it should be. First the front door, the only door into the apartment. It was locked and bolted and the night chain was attached. All that remained was to push the big wardrobe up against it. The killer could not enter now without a noisy struggle and if he tried Benedict would be there waiting with his gun. That took care of the door.
There were no windows in either the kitchen or the bathroom, so he could forget about these rooms. The bedroom was a possibility since its window looked out onto the fire escape, but he had a plan for this too. The window was locked and the only way it could be opened from the outside was by breaking the glass. He would hear that and would have time to push the couch in the hall up against the bedroom door. He didn’t want to block it now in case he had to retreat into the bedroom himself.
Only one room remained, the living room, and this was where he was going to make his stand. There were two windows in the living room and the far one could be entered from the fire escape, as could the bedroom window. The killer might come this way. The other window could not be reached from the fire escape, though shots could still be fired through it from the windows across the court. But the corner was out of the line of fire, and this was where he would be. He had pushed the big armchair right up against the wall and, after checking once more that both windows were locked, he dropped into it.
His gun rested on his lap and was pointed at the far window by the fire escape. He would shoot if anyone tried to come through it. The other window was close by, but no harm could come that way unless he stood in front of it. The thin fabric curtains were drawn and once it was dark he would be able to see through them without being seen himself. By shifting the gun barrel a few degrees he could cover the door into the hall. If there were any disturbance at the front door he could be there in a few steps. He had done everything he could. He settled back into the chair.
Once the daylight faded the room was quite. dark, yet he could see well enough by the light of the city sky which filtered in through the drawn curtains. It was very quiet and whenever he shifted position he could hear the new chair springs twang beneath him. After only a few hours he realized one slight flaw in his plan. He was thirsty.
At first he could ignore it, but by nine o’clock his mouth was as dry as cotton wool. He knew he couldn’t last the night like this; it was too distracting. He should have brought a jug of water in with him. The wisest thing would be to go and get it as soon as possible, yet he did not want to leave the protection of the corner. He had heard nothing of the killer and this only made him more concerned about his unseen presence.
Then he heard Maria calling to him. Very softly at first, then louder and louder. She was worried. Was he all right? He dared not answer her, not from here. The only thing to do was to go to her, whisper through the door that everything was fine and that she should be quiet. Perhaps then she would go to sleep. And he could get some water in the kitchen and bring it back.
As quietly as he could he rose and stretched his stiff legs, keeping his eyes on the gray square of the second window. Putting the toe of one foot against the heel of the other he pulled his shoes off, then went on silent tiptoe across the room. Maria was calling louder now, rattling at the bathroom door, and he had to silence her. Why couldn’t she realize the danger she was putting him in? As he passed through the door the hall light above him came on.
“What are you doing?” he screamed at Maria who stood by the switch, blinking in the sudden glare.
“I was so worried ….”
The crash of breaking glass from the living room was punctuated by the hammering boom of the machine pistol. Arrows of pain tore at Benedict and he hurled himself sprawling into the hall.
“Into the bathroom!” he screamed and fired his own revolver back through the dark doorway.
He was only half aware of Maria’s muffled squeal as she slammed the door and, for the moment, he forgot the pain of the wounds. There was the metallic smell of burnt gunpowder, and a blue haze hung in the air. Something scraped in the living room and he fired again into the darkness. He winced as the answering fire crashed thunder and flame toward him and the bullets tore holes in the plaster of the hall opposite the door.
The firing stopped but he kept his gun pointed as he realized that the killer’s fire couldn’t reach him where he lay, against the wall away from the open doorway. The man would have to come into the hall to shoot him, and if he did that Benedict would fire first and kill him. More shots slammed into the wall but he did not bother to answer them. When the silence stretched out for more than a minute he took a chance and silently broke the revolver and pulled out the empty shells, putting five cartridges in their place. There was a pool of blood under his leg.
Keeping the gun pointed at the doorway he clumsily rolled up his pants leg with his left hand, then took a quick glimpse. There was more blood running down his ankle and sopping his sock. A bullet had torn through his calf muscle and made two round, dark holes from which the thick blood pumped. It made him dizzy to look at; then he remembered and pointed the wavering pistol back at the doorway. The living room was silent. His side hurt too, but when he pulled his shirt out of his trousers and looked he realized that although this wound was painful it was not as bad as the one in his leg. A second bullet had burned along his side, glancing off the ribs and leaving a shallow wound. It wasn’t bleeding badly. Something would have to be done about his leg.
“You moved fast, Benedict, I must congratulate you.”
Benedict’s finger contracted with shock and he pumped two bullets into the room, toward the sound of the man’s voice. The man laughed.
“Nerves, Benedict, nerves. Just because I am here to kill you doesn’t mean that we can’t talk.”
“You’re a filthy beast, a foul, filthy beast!”
Benedict splattered the words from his lips and followed them with a string of obscenities, expressions he hadn’t used or even heard since his school days. He stopped suddenly as he realized that Maria could hear him. She had never heard him curse before.
“Nerves, Benedict?”
The dry laugh sounded again. “Calling me insulting names won’t alter this situation.”
“Why don’t you leave — I won’t try to stop you,” Benedict said as he slowly pulled his left arm out of his shirt. “I don’t want to see you or know you. Why don’t you go away?”
“I’m afraid that it is not that easy, Ben. You have created this situation; in one sense you have called me here. Like a sorcerer summoning some evil genie. That’s a pleasant simile, isn’t it? May I introduce myself. My name is Mortimer.”
“I don’t want to know your name, you … piece of filth.”
Benedict half-mumbled, his attention concentrated on the silent removal of his shirt. It hung now from his right wrist and he shifted the gun to his left hand for a moment while he draped the shirt over the wound in his calf and he gasped, then spoke quickly to disguise the sound. “You came here because you wanted to, and I’m going to kill you for that.”
“Very good, Benedict, that is much more the type of spirit I expected from you. After all, you are the closest we can come to a dedicated law-breaker these days. The antisocial individualist who stands alone, who will carry on the traditions of the Dillingers and the James Brothers. Though of course they brought death and you brought life, and your weapon is far humbler than their guns …”