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was a solitary wall heater on the wall above the bath and he pulled the cord to switch it on. He was mildly surprised when the slight groaning noise it made indicated that it was in working order.
    Jamieson put his foot into the water and savoured the warmth for a moment before stepping into the tub and immersing himself so that only his face and the tops of his knees were above the water. He let out a sigh of satisfaction and, unwilling to move lest he destroy the moment, lay still and watched the steam drift upwards to the high, cracked ceiling. The strain of the motorway journey and the hassle of petty obstruction started to drift away.
    The hypnotic silence was broken by the shrill ring of the telephone and Jamieson closed his eyes in disbelief. He considered ignoring it for a moment but ignoring a ringing telephone can be impossibly hard on the nerves and there was always the possibility that it was Sue calling to see if he had arrived safely. He stretched out his right hand and grabbed the chrome handle at the back of the bath to pull himself to his feet.
    He had almost reached the vertical when the handle suddenly came out of the wall and he fell heavily backwards to splash down into the water. He jarred the base of his spine and hit his left elbow hard against the side of the tub. The curse that sprang to his lips was suddenly frozen as he saw what was happening above him. A wave of fear swept over him. Five feet up on the wall, the heater had come away from its mounting and was hanging delicately by what Jamieson reckoned could not be more than a millimetre of screwnail on either side. The bar that had come away in his hand had opened up the entire wiring channel in the wall and destroyed the plaster behind the heater.
    Even as Jamieson stared up at the glowing element, almost afraid to breathe in case it fell into the water and electrocuted him, he saw it move a fraction. In the background the telephone still rang. A feeling of panic urged him to pull himself up and over the side of the bath but through this fear he realised that this would be entirely the wrong thing to do. It would almost certainly be fatal. The heater was balanced so finely that the slightest vibration would cause it to fall.
    The water! He must get rid of the water in the bath! If he could do that before the heater fell on him then perhaps he could escape the short circuit that would kill him.
    Cautiously he felt with his big toe under the water for the bath plug while his eyes remained glued to the red bar above him. He found the retaining chain and manipulated it between his toes to apply pressure. He felt the links bite into the soft skin between his toes as the plug refused to budge at first but pain had become a secondary consideration. He continued increasing the pressure until he felt the plug give and heard the water start to gurgle away down the drain.
    Again, he had to fight his instinct. If he jerked the plug out suddenly an air lock in the drain might cause enough vibration to bring the heater down. He steeled himself to maintain a slight opening of the plug, while water drained away in a steady trickle.
     
    Half the bath had emptied when Jamieson heard a key being inserted in the lock next door. Terror was re-born inside his head. For God's sake don't slam the door he prayed as he heard the door open. A few seconds of limbo passed with the slowness of eternity before the door slammed and the heater left its mounting.
    In a series of events that appeared to Jamieson to occur in agonising slow motion he ripped out the bath plug completely with his foot, flung away the chrome bar that he was still holding and raised his hands to meet the heater. It seared his palms and the smell of burning flesh filled his nostrils as he turned violently to wrench hard.
    Mains voltage shot through him, locking his jaw and throwing his entire body into spasm but Jamieson’s desperate gamble had paid off. The momentum of his body in the turn had been