Dan planted two smashes on Silent's snarling mouth.

A glance showed the large man the mute, strained faces around the room.

The laughing devil leaped again.

Then all pride slipped like water from the heart of Jim Silent, and in its place there was only icy fear, fear not of a man, but of animal power.

He caught up a heavy chair and drove it with all his desperate strength at Dan.
It cracked distinctly against his head and the weight of it fairly drove him into the floor.