He loosed the bomb and immediately Baxter was lying in bed watching it drop.  He was frightened, but the idea of moving did not occur to him.  The bomb fell very slowly, dipping and fluttering like a feather.  It came closer and closer.  Then it struck with a roar and a sheet of flame.

Baxter woke to a sound of tumult and crashing.  For a moment he hovered between dreaming and waking, and then sleep passed from him, and he was aware that something noisy and exciting was in progress in the hall below.

* * *

Coming down to first causes, the only reason why collisions of any kind occur is because two bodies defy Nature’s law that a given spot on a given plane shall at a given moment of time be occupied by only one body.

There was a certain spot near the foot of the great staircase which Ashe, coming downstairs from Mr. Peters’ room, and George Emerson, coming up to Aline’s room, had to pass on their respective routes.  George reached it at one minute and three seconds after two a.m., moving silently but swiftly; and Ashe, also maintaining a good rate of speed, arrived there at one minute and four seconds after the hour, when he ceased to walk and began to fly, accompanied by George Emerson, now going down.  His arms were round George’s neck and George was clinging to his waist.

In due season they reached the foot of the stairs and a small table, covered with occasional china and photographs in frames, which lay adjacent to the foot of the stairs.  That—­especially the occasional china—­was what Baxter had heard.

George Emerson thought it was a burglar.  Ashe did not know what it was, but he knew he wanted to shake it off; so he insinuated a hand beneath George’s chin and pushed upward.  George, by this time parted forever from the tongue, the bread, the knife, the fork, the salt, the corkscrew and the bottle of white wine, and having both hands free for the work of the moment, held Ashe with the left and punched him in the ribs with the right.

Ashe, removing his left arm from George’s neck, brought it up as a reinforcement to his right, and used both as a means of throttling George.  This led George, now permanently underneath, to grasp Ashe’s ears firmly and twist them, relieving the pressure on his throat and causing Ashe to utter the first vocal sound of the evening, other than the explosive Ugh! that both had emitted at the instant of impact.

Ashe dislodged George’s hands from his ears and hit George in the ribs with his elbow.  George kicked Ashe on the left ankle.  Ashe rediscovered George’s throat and began to squeeze it afresh; and a pleasant time was being had by all when the Efficient Baxter, whizzing down the stairs, tripped over Ashe’s legs, shot forward and cannoned into another table, also covered with occasional china and photographs in frames.

The hall at Blandings Castle was more an extra drawing-room than a hall; and, when not nursing a sick headache in her bedroom, Lady Ann Warblington would dispense afternoon tea there to her guests.  Consequently it was dotted pretty freely with small tables.  There were, indeed, no fewer than five more in various spots, waiting to be bumped into and smashed.