`Arranging the fake telephone call had been easy. The first one was genuine. When the second came through, I was in the record-room; I'd simply rung up Parker and spoken as Driscoll. I knew he would call me on the speaking-tube. Then I would go to the phone again, say "Hallo Phil!" to myself, and answer myself in his voice, and Parker would hang up.
`But I had to work fast. The plan was, simple. I was going to leave the General's car at a garage in Holborn, hurry to Driscoll's flat, and pinch the manuscript. Then I was going to open a window, ransack the flat a bit, and steal a few odd things so that it would look like the work of a burglar. I knew Phil would never be blamed for stealing it from the old man; the old man would never know. The only danger Phil ran was in trying to return it. And, by God! if you think I hesitated to steal from the old man…. I'd pinch his shirt off his back.'
He took the bottle of whisky from the table and poured out almost half a tumbler. He was growing defiant, and swallowed the drink neat….
`It sounded good enough. I don't think Phil would ever suspect me. When I got to the flat and found he wasn't there, I had time enough to search. A phone call came from Parker at the Tower while I was searching. I made a mistake by answering it; but I was rattled: Still — later,' he choked a little, `later it. gave an alibi. It was `just before a quarter to two….
`Listen! I'd tumbled the study about some, because at first I didn't think of looking in the grate. But I did look there, and found it. I wasn't hurrying, because I thought Phil was safely at the Tower: — I examined, it carefully, and put it in my pocket. I was just going on to rumple up the room some more..’ `I turned round; heard a noise or, 'something — I don't know. And there was Phil in the doorway, looking at me. I knew he'd been, standing there, and he'd seen everything.'
Dalrye's fixed, absent look had turned horrible.
`You never saw Phil in one of his rages, did you? When he had them, he was a crazy man. He tried to kill a man once, with a penknife, because the man made fun of something he was wearing. He would go what they call — berserk, and he was as dangerous as hell
`I don't think I've ever heard anybody curse in my life the way he did; then. It was so violent it sounded… I don't know how to describe it… obscene. He had a brown cap, all pulled over one ear. I always knew when he would jump. We'd had boxing-bouts with soft gloves several times; but I stopped sparring with him because I was a better boxer, and when I got' inside his guard too smartly he'd fly off the handle and tell me he wanted to fight with knives. I saw him crouch down. I said, "Phil, for God's sake don't be a fool — " and he was looking round for something and he saw it. It was that crossbow bolt, lying on a low bookcase beside the door. Then he jumped.
`I tried to dodge aside and get him by the collar, the way you might a charging-dog. But he landed full. We whirled around… I I don't' exactly know what happened. I heard a chair hit the floor. And the next thing I knew we smashed over together, with me on top of him, and I heard a sort of dull crunch…. And just after that…
`F-Funny,' Dalrye said wildly. `When I was a kid I had a rubber toy once that wheezed and squeaked when you punched it. I thought of that. Because the noise he made was just like that toy, only a hundred times louder, and more horrible. Then there was a kind of hiss and gurgle of the toy getting the air in it again. And he didn't move any more.