Then I was all on fire and groping forward once more whilst those footsteps, sinister and menacing as the very steps of Doom, came higher and nearer.
At last I found the door and wrenched it open.

I stayed to close it after me, and already at the end of the passage beat the reflection of the light Fifanti carried.

A second I stood there hesitating which way to turn.

My first thought was to gain my own chamber.

But to attempt it were assuredly to run into his arms.