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Swiftly and quietly he crossed the kitchen, and as he entered the hall the thought came to him for the first time. What if he isn't in? Well then, he would wait until he came in, and neither Esther Blenheim nor a hundred like her would stop him.

The dining-room door lay along the passage to the right of him and, still on tiptoe, he was making for it when the sitting- room door opened and he froze to the spot and looked across at Gail who was now standing staring at him as if at an apparition. Before she spoke his name she glanced apprehensively to the side of her and up the stairs, and then she whispered, "Robbie!"

It was at this moment that a door banged overhead and now they both looked towards the stairs, to the head of it and to John Blenheim, who had come to a stop on the first step, one hand gripping the banister, the other flat against the wall. And there he stood for a space that seemed timeless.

"Well, aren't you coming down? I'm waiting for you."

Before her brother could make any reply, Gail cried, "What is it? What is it?"

Robbie didn't look at her but he answered her.

"I'll tell you what it is," he said in a slow, deliberate, frightening tone.

"Your brother's burned me house down, right to the ground, and everything in it."

"No 1 No I' The two words were like a thin scream, and now Gail was at the bottom of the stairs staring up at her brother, shouting, " You didn't, John 1 You didn't I' Again Robbie answered her.

"He did."

"He's mad." John Blenheim's voice was cold, incisive, the tone scornful.

"Always has been. He's potty."

Gail now turned and looked at Robbie, and, her voice appealing, she said, "He couldn't, Robbie, he couldn't. Not that, not your house."

Robbie's eyes hadn't flinched a fraction from the tall figure poised above him, nor were his lids blinking. His stare fixed the hair above it.

When Gail stood in front of him, saying pleadingly, "He didn't, you heard him, Robbie. He wouldn't. Not that," he thrust her roughly away with his outstretched arm and she landed up against the wall to the side of the drawing-room door, and there she stood with both hands stretched across her mouth and watched her brother move slowly down the staircase.

When John Blenheim reached the last step he paused and from this added vantage point he looked down on to the dark, hate-filled countenance, and he spat at it, "Get out of here 1' The answer came in a spring that brought him from the stair and whirling into the middle of the hall.

For a matter of seconds they faced each other like two judo combatants.

Then they were locked together, struggling, tearing, clawing.

As if throwing off a small clinging animal, John Blenheim now tossed Robbie against the main balustrade of the stairs, and there he lay in a huddled heap until like a cobra uncoiling, he slowly brought himself to his feet, and again he sprang. It wasn't the action of a man, it was more like some primitive beast, and it brought another high-pitched scream from Gail.

Robbie's hands this time made straight for John Blenheim's throat and by the sheer frenzy of his effort they found their target, and when he felt the flesh beneath his fingers he hung like a limpet to a rock, and although John Blenheim swayed and thrashed and grappled with the hands he couldn't dislodge them. The next moment they were both on the floor, rolling and tossing, Robbie on top one second, John Blenheim the next. Both their faces were now covered in blood, but whereas a few moments before John Blenheim had been using his rugby tactics, now with the pressure tightening on his gullet, they were becoming ineffectual.

"Robbie 1 Robbie 1 Oh Robbie, for God's sake leave go. Leave go of him!" Gail tried pulling him off by his collar, then by tearing at both his hands with hers, but when she couldn't unloosen his grasp she beat at him with her fists, yelling all the time, "Robbie I Robbie I Do you hear me? Do you hear? Please I please!"

It was this scene that met Esther Blenheim as she came "Help me. Help me get him off."

Now it was as if another wild beast had joined the fray for Esther Blenheim tore not only at Robbie's hands but at his face, and when at last her son was free she fell on her knees beside him, crying, "John I John!" When he didn't speak she took him by the shoulders and lifted his limp head upwards and shook him, all the time, crying, "John!

John! " as his chest swelled and he drew in a deep intake of breath she almost dropped him back on the floor with relief. Then, cradling him she looked across at the madman her daughter was supporting and she cried, " You insane beast. Get out of here. " And when Robbie made no move but continued to lean against Gail's supporting shoulder, she screamed in a voice that rang through the house, " You filthy, murdering little beast! Get out I Do you hear? Get out I' It did not strike Esther Blenheim at the moment that her son was not only head and shoulders taller than his attacker but that he could also give him breadth all round. When she saw that Robbie Dunn neither moved nor made answer she yelled at Gail, "Get away from him. Do you hear me, girl? Get away from him."

Shivering from head to foot, Gail stared at her mother holding John in her arms. It was like the picture of Christ taken down from the Cross;

but John wasn't Christ and her mother wasn't Mary. And so she yelled back at her, "You know what he's done, our John? He's burned Robbie's house down. Do you hear me? He's burned Robbie's house down I' Esther Blenheim now looked at her son, who was pulling himself from his knees to his feet, and her lips moved, but no sound came from them. And Gail was yelling at her again.

"You could have stopped him, you could, you could. You knew he was up to something. All week he hasn't spoken. You knew what that meant, you knew he was up to something."

Esther Blenheim now rose from the floor and, following her son who was shambling towards the drawing-room, she touched his arm as she said,

"Did you ? Did you do this ?"

Looking straight back into "her face he said, " No, of course I didn't.

He's mad, insane. I'll have him for this. "

watched Robbie stumble forward. They watched him wipe the blood from his mouth before saying, "He was seen by two people, they've given the police his description, but I wanted to deal with him in me own fashion afore they got their hands on him."

Now Esther Blenheim was cupping her face with both her hands, and her voice, without strength now, muttered, "No, no! You're mistaken.

You're mistaken. "

"I'm not mistaken. Six foot, the men said, blond, silver blond, an'

going into the house, my house, carrying a can of petrol. The man said he's only waiting to recognise him. No Mrs. Blen heim there's no mistake."

John Blenheim was now in the drawing-room, and Esther, following him, cried, "John 1 Look at me. Do you hear? Look at me." And when he turned towards her she demanded, "Did you do this, this thing?" And when he said slowly and bitterly "Yes, I did it, and I'd do it again,"

she closed her eyes and bowed her head and held her hands over her ears as if to shut out his voice. After a moment she turned towards Robbie, who was still standing in the hall, and she said to him, "What are you going to do?"

"What do you think, Mrs. Blenheim, eh? What do you think? I'm going to leave it to the polis. I don't know what the sentence is for arson and tarring a shop but I should imagine it'll be more than his father got, an' if there's any justice it will be. An' without your permission, Mrs. Blenheim, I'm goin' to use your phone."

As he stepped towards the side-table Esther Blenheim came through the door. Her hands joined tightly against her breast, she pleaded,

"Robbie! Please, please, wait. I've ... I've lost everything and"

"So have I, Mrs. Blenheim, so have I. An' not only me home but the best part of me business. That ground floor was full of antiques, specially got for a client who was comin' on Monday. I've lost everything an' all, Mrs. Blenheim."

"But ... but you will have it all covered with insurance." She was gulping on each word and he smiled at her, a deadly smile, as he said,

"Practical to the last, Mrs. Blenheim, aren't you? Now, aye, you would thing a sharp-shooting Jew like me would have one sense to cover me for. iwo mousana cover, mat's all they would give me on the building when I took it. Six months ago they gave me four, but last week I put in to raise it to ten. An' that's what it was going to be, ten thousand, but it wasn't signed, so there I stand with four thousand cover, and the furniture in there was worth more than that. An' that's not covered, only when it was in the shop. So there you have it, Mrs.

Blenheim. And to think, as Gail's just said, you could have stopped that maniac, but you didn't, because somehow you knew that the day your man was marrying me mother, an' you let your retaliation have rip through him. Well, everything's got to be paid for, Mrs. Blenheim."

"I ... I understand that, nobody better, everything's got to be paid for." Her voice was bitter, her manner haughty again, and now she said, "Give me a little time, please, time to think."

Robbie's hand was on the phone.

"I'll ... I'll make up the difference, at least my father will. You won't be out of pocket, only please, I beg of you, don't take this any further."

"What I You're jokin'. Let him get off with this? Leave him free to do me down again? Oh no."

"Robbie 1' He turned and looked at Gail, she was standing against the hall wardrobe as if she was afraid to leave its support. Her hands were pressed Sat against the wood and she muttered, " Don't do it, please.

She's . she's got to have something left, because I'm. I'm leaving.

"

Robbie stared at her. Her reasoning was beyond him at the moment. Why should she think that her leaving home would affect his decision? But before he could find an answer his attention was drawn to Esther Blenheim, because her manner, no longer beseeching or persuasive, or even haughty, she was rounding on her daughter, crying, "You won't I You can't. You promised."

Now Gail brought her body stiffly from the wardrobe, and, nodding towards her mother, she said slowly, "Yes, yes, I know what I promised, but I also know that if I stay here I'll likely go berserk and finish what Robbie attempted a minute ago."

"You promised, girl, you promised ... you swore. Remem __..--------^^wA*. *?" -n_ciAAAiliy ill UCI'llUW. A gave your father a divorce solely because you promised that you wouldn't marry him. "

She thrust her arm back, her thumb out towards Robbie.

"You promised faithfully, you promised on your honour."

Robbie's hand moved from the top of the phone to the table and he leaned heavily on it as he stared first at Gail then at Esther Blenheim, then back to Gail again. What had she said? She had promised she wouldn't marry him and that was how Harry had got his divorce? But he had never asked her. Marry her? They'd hardly been civil to each other; they had never necked or courted as it were. He had touched her that once when she had slipped on the ice. Marry her?

His mouth was filling with blood from the slit in his lip and he swallowed and blinked as Gail cried at her mother, "Promise or no promise, I'm leaving. And with him. And now. You can't do anything;

Dad's married. "

"Oh ... yes ... I... can. Oh ... yes ... I... can."

"Don't be silly Mother." Gait's voice although trembling now, was scornful, deriding.

"Robbie has you in the hollow of his hand. You try to stop me leaving and he'll use that phone, won't you, Robbie?"

He stared at her. His mind was in a whirl, caught as it were in a strong current leading from the main stream of his hate. He looked at the hand now clutching his arm and when she said pleadingly, "Come on, Robbie, let's go," he moved a step with her before pulling himself to a halt and saying, "Wait a minute. Hold on. Wait a minute." His body too had shrugged off her suggestion and he had turned half from her, only to turn quickly to her again and grab the hand that had left his arm, and he gripped it tightly and stared at her for a second before speaking to her mother again, saying, "That would be simple, wouldn't it, just to walk out, but it's not going to end like that, oh no." He slowly swung his head the width of his shoulders and this action, more than further words said plainly that he wasn't finished, not by a long chalk.

When, still holding Gail by the hand, he stepped towards the sitting-room door, Esther cried at him, "Don't go in there. Don't you dare go in there 1' and he paused for a moment. Then ignoring Dotn ner ana me restraining pressure i. uai jail was now putting on his hand, he stepped into the framework of the door. And once more he looked at John Blenheim, who was sitting now, his hands massaging his throat, and he said to him, "The greatest pleasure I can think up is to see you goin' out of this house at ween a couple of polis men but besides your dear mother'--he laid emphasis on the dear--'there'd be somebody else who'd feel guilty over you. And that's your father. But, prison aside, you're not going to get off with it.

By God, no, you're not. I want it down in writing what you've done.

Do you hear?

IN WRITING.

And signed. "

"No, no. Don't, John." Esther was now standing near her son, and she looked down at him, saying, "Don't you do any such thing."

"He's got no choice, Mrs. Blenheim, an' you know it. So listen to me, both of you. Even as things stand, even if I don't phone for the polis, there's still this man and his son, an' they'll be on the look-out for you." His lips left his teeth as he paused and returned in full the baleful- glare of John Blenheim before going on, "So I'd advise you not to run. D'you hear?"

Slowly now he turned his attention to Esther, saying, "Whatever's goin'

to be done it'll be done legal. You have him at the solicitor's on Monday morning. No'--he shook his head-- " Monday afternoon, say three o'clock. These things 'we got to be arranged an' me solicitor, by the way, is a Jew. You won't be able to miss him; his name's Steen, three doors down below my shop.