He employs a bodyguard, and a private detective. He continues to live in fear of Vera. She has damaged him in ways that he cannot yet entirely comprehend. A high wall is insufficient protection from her, or from those who follow in her stead.
At night, when alone, he sometimes glimpses the silhouette of the Dancing Master, and then it is gone.
The bodyguard’s name is Martin Wolfkeil, but the actor Will Rogers gives him the nickname “Tonnage.” Tonnage Martin is a ship’s engineer, and a former brakeman for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company.
“Tonnage” is not a misnomer. Tonnage Martin weighs four hundred pounds.
Tonnage Martin comes to live with him for nine months. They are, Tonnage Martin will later admit, the worst nine months of Tonnage Martin’s life. Even Tonnage Martin, who thrice survives being torpedoed in the Great War, would rather face the Germans again than Vera, because at least those Germans weren’t crazy, although Tonnage Martin can’t speak for the new Germans, who may well be crazy, if still not as crazy as Vera.
Tonnage Martin leaves his service when Vera eventually departs California. Tonnage Martin later sues him for $2,700, and dies of a heart attack in Ohio. He is not invited to be a pallbearer, for which he is much relieved.