We stood up together. We heard Furnilove padding towards the door, and we both moved out into the passage as he slid up the latch and unhooked the chain. Constantia, in her eagerness, had pressed a little ahead of me.
A man rushed in, disregarding Furnilove, shouldering him aside—a man in a furred overcoat. Expecting Farrell, for the moment I mistook him for Farrell. Even when above the fur collar I caught the sight of common khaki, for another moment I took him for Farrell. But he ran for Constantia, stretching out his arms as if to embrace her; and as he stretched them, under the hall light, I saw that one of his hands was bleeding.
I had enough presence of mind to spring in front of her and ward him off. It was Foe.
"It's all right," he gasped, staring at me. "No need to make a fuss. … I have killed him." And with that, still staring at me horribly, he sank slowly and collapsed in a huddle at my feet, raving out incoherent words.
Furnilove behaved admirably. Having assured himself that Miss Constantia was safe, and that I had the intruder under control, he went smartly to the telephone.… Amid Foe's ravings I heard him ringing up the exchange and, after a pause, summoning the doctor.
"We had better have the spare room prepared again, after all," said Constantia. "We can't turn him out, in this state.… And there's a dressing-room, Roddy, next door, if you can put up with it.… But what has happened, God knows."
"God knows," said I. "But he's a lunatic, unless I'm mistaken. We'll hear what the doctor says.… But he shan't sleep here, to trouble you.… Furnilove, whistle up and have a taxi ready.…"
"Oh, what is he saying?" moaned Constantia as the body on the floor still twisted as if burrowing to hide itself, now muttering and again shouting in a voice that reverberated along the passage, "Kill him! Damn that dog!—kill him!"
I knelt on the body and held it still. It was the body of my best friend, and I knelt on it, almost throttling him.
"One can't ring up a lunatic asylum, at this hour of the morning," I found myself gasping. "He's for my flat, to-night, if your doctor will take charge of him with me." And with that I looked up and caught sight of Constantia's mother at the head of the staircase.