Robert sat perfectly still for a moment; then he got up slowly, went over to the door, and flung it open and walked back to the table…. “Get out of here,” he said. Upshaw did not move: he sat regarding him silently, with an intent, contemptuous, catlike stare.
“Did you hear me?” said Robert…. “Get out of my room!”
“Sit down,” said Upshaw. “You’re going to annoy me.”
“Annoy you! I’ll annoy you, you damned rascal,” Robert cried furiously, and suddenly he slapped Upshaw in the face, shouting, “You’re going out of here this minute, do you hear?… I’ll show you if you can insult me in my own place,” and he lunged viciously towards him.
What happened then was so sudden and swift that Eugene could never thereafter remember clearly the order in which all of the events occurred: as Robert plunged towards the little man, Martha spoke sharply to him, commanding him to be still, at the same moment the table and two chairs overturned with a crash of glassware… and Upshaw, somehow, with an incredible speed of movement, was on his feet and moving backward out of the way of Robert’s lunging fist. Eugene had a brief and terribly clear sensation of a gesture of catlike speed as Upshaw thrust his hand into the pocket of his coat and then the bright wicked wink of steel. Then Martha was on top of him, clinging frantically to his arm, wrestling him into the wall, and in a moment wrenching the weapon from his grasp.
For a moment there was no sound in the room whatever save the sound of three excited people breathing rapidly and heavily, and another sound, the terrible sound of Upshaw’s breathing, hoarse, rattling, painful, breaking suddenly and sharply into a torn gasping cough that was thick with blood. The first words spoken came from Martha:
“Close that door!” she commanded curtly.
Robert, instead of obliging her, turned to Eugene with an awed and quieted light in his eye.
“Did you see that?” he whispered to Eugene.—“Did you see him pull that gun on me?… Why!” he cried with a kind of sudden astonishment, “it was assault with a deadly weapon! That’s what it was! He tried to murder me!” He was beside himself with astonishment and excitement. “I’m going to get the police,” and he rushed out into the hall.
“Go get that damned fool and bring him back here,” she said to Eugene. “And close that door!”
Eugene ran out into the corridor just in time to see Robert disappearing
