"Got it," said the too-late hero. "Thanks." He turned right and walked on. He'd be able to find the school again; it was the only place in town, maybe the only place for miles, with two lights in front, one shining through the door and the other hung to a spike in a phone pole outside where the motor-pool man guarded a weird collection of vehicles.
He rambled down one dark street cursing inwardly. He was sure the big, dynamic Mickey Groff hadn't slept through it, had seized the chance for leadership and heroism.
Quite suddenly his chance arrived and he almost walked right past it. Two writhing figures in a doorway, a woman and a man in a silent, deadly struggle. He had one arm around her head and his paw over her mouth; her dress was torn down the front.
It flashed through his head. He was about to Defend the Virtue of a Maiden against the assault of a Lust-Maddened, Drink-Crazed Human Beast. Chivalry stuff.
He grabbed the man's shoulder and heaved, but his heart wasn't in it.
A fist flailed from nowhere and smashed him high on the right cheek, hard enough to make an icy area of numbness for a moment and then—hell's own pain. From that moment his heart was in it. While the woman, shoved aside, lay on the ground panting, he waded into the man. After the first few blows it was no longer a fight but first-degree assault. He battered the man to the ground and stood over him grimly, his chest heaving. "You want any more?" he croaked.
The man mumbled something. It could have been "no."
He looked around for the woman; she was reeling down the street, one arm propping her against the wall. A couple came scurrying past, stared at her and gave her a wide berth. He hastened after her. "Can I help you?" he asked.
She said sluggishly, "Went to see if my sister was—no. Jus' go away. Thanks, and everything. But leave me alone. Please."
He backed off and watched her slowly make her way down the street. She turned a corner and he crossed the street to see. She painfully climbed the steps of a frame house with a porch, went inside and the great adventure was over.