For an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door which led away from death.

The next instant I threw myself through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side.

The panel had closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me how narrow had been my escape.
"I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, while she held a candle in her right.

It was the same good friend whose warning I had so foolishly rejected.
"'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly.

'They will be here in a moment.