“There,” he said, “that is something.”
“What?... I don’t understand.”
He sat in the chair, removed the shoe from his sound foot and then the sock. He did this slowly, methodically, and as methodically replaced the shoe on his sockless foot. Then he lifted from the floor the stocking and dropped into it the doorknob. It fitted snugly into the toe.
“Er—I have read of such things,” he said. He grasped the sock by the top and whirled it about his head. “Mechanics,” said he, “teach us that a blow delivered with such an implement is many times more efficacious than a blow delivered with the—er—solid object held directly in the hand....”
CHAPTER XXV
“I HAVE come to the conclusion,” said Evan Pell, “that every man, no matter what his vocation, should be a man of action. That is to say, he should devote some attention and practice to those muscular and mental activities which will serve him should some unexpected emergency arise.”
“Yes,” said Carmel.... “Yes.”
“I find myself with little or no equipment for strenuous adventure. This, we must admit, proves itself to be a serious oversight.”
“Do you know how long we have been shut in this room?” Carmel demanded.
“I do. You were—er—propelled into this place at approximately ten-thirty last night. It is now five o’clock to-day. Eighteen hours and a half.”