OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

THE LODGER 117
back, and didn't realize it was the handcuffs that made him walk so
awkwardly.
" She's coming to," said Moise, who was bending over
Antoinette.
But Madame Baron had rushed out, followed by Sylvie, who
was vainly trying to drag her back.
The three men halted in the hall. Madame Baron, who was
standing a couple of yards from Elie, seemed incapable of making
the least movement, or getting a word out,
Elie's face was badly knocked about, his hair plastered on his
forehead, his nose bleeding profusely—but what impressed her most
was the change that had come over his eyes. They kept moving
restlessly from one object to another, and had a curious blank intensity
that reminded her of the eyes of certain caged animals she
had seen in the Zoo. In fact, one had the impression that he failed
to recognize her, or any of the others.
" Do wait a moment," she begged the police officers, " he can't
go out in that state," and edged past them into the bedroom.
Her husband was standing half-way down the stairs, but she paid
no heed to his look of horrified enquiry.
The Superintendent had got out his handkerchief and was
stanching the flow of blood from a gash across his hand.
" Fetch his suitcases," he said to the plain-clothes man, who
had just come in.
Madame Baron returned with a damp towel and started wiping
Elie's face. It all had taken no more than a few minutes, but already
quite a crowd had collected outside. A small boy, perched on the
railings, was peeping in at Elie's bedroom window.
Elie took Madame Baron's ministrations quite calmly, but blood
kept oozing from the wounds as fast as she wiped it off.
At last the Superintendent intervened, and gently thrust her
aside. " Let him be, Madame. He's not badly hurt." To the men
with him he added: " Get* those people away. We don't want a
crowd outside."
A moment later they heard a gruff voice in the street:
"Move on there! What are you hanging about for? There's
nothing to see."
Now and then Baron took a cautious step down the stairs,
moving like a man in a dream. What was happening passed liis
comprehension. He only had a shirt and trousers on, and his
slippered feet were bare.