18.

"what was that son?" said the bald stranger.

He began to swing his crutch cum weapon with the finesse of a professionally trained ballerina. This was no ordinary man. He had both class and elegance as his savvy dress sense and propensity to knock out defenceless woman clearly indicated.

"ohahohewho."

"that's quite enough gibberish."

The bald one, by the malicious look on his face delivered a fierce blow to the side of Daly's head. Daly looked up blankly. This vacant stare was answered with a series of strikes that left him spasming on the ground.

Absolom scuttled over to the man who had once tried to feed him to an exotic lizard and whimpered uncontrollably.