THE INTRUDER

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33671, 22 October 1974, Page 26

THE INTRUDER

This story concerns a man every married man must envy. He is single; our unattainable dreams are his everyday reality. He was going out to dinner one Sunday evening, and with his housekeeper away for the week-end and not due back until the following morning, he could not be bothered with lighting the fire to sit and read by, but chose, as at was a miserable afternoon, to take his book and himself into a good hot bath and there while away the next half-hour. When reading a book it is more civilised to have a bath full of hot water to dip your finger in than to have to poke out your tongue and lick the aforesaid finger every time you wish to turn over a page. But to most of us

this is impossible. Hot water is at a premium, the bathroom has to be shared with other members of the family; pantyhose and other feminine apparel hanging all round make it too dark; and we would be constantly reminded of trivial jobs we had forsaken to selfishly soak there anyway. But there he is, this fortunate fellow, lost in a spine-tingling murder mystery amid the warm companionable steam. As the bath water cools his left foot rises to the occasion and nimbly turns on the hot tap. Time goes cosily by. Suddenly he has an eerie feeling that he is not alone, that in the sanctity of his own bath he is being watched. Ridiculous, but the feeling remains. Unwillingly obey-

ing the crazy call of his subconscious, he drags his blood-thirsty eyes from an exciting page. And there through the steam he sees a hairy black face with two big brown eyes looking equally aghast into his. For one agonisingly long second they remain glued to each other. Then with a blood-curdling scream he leaps from the bath, splashing water everywhere, losing his place in the book and his usual sang-froid. Later, dried, robed but still shaken, he emerges from the bathroom to be confronted by his housekeeper who has returned ahead of schedule. She is very cross and severely admonishes him for scaring the wits out of her poor little black spaniel.