A shrill whistle rang through the room; a voice shouted, "Don't 'it 'im; 'ook 'im!" His arms were seized from behind and pinioned to his sides.

The lights were turned out.

Somebody in front hit him a terrific crack in the eye at the same moment that someone else administered a violent kick from the rear.

He was propelled by an invisible force to the head of the stairs, and then--whizz! down he went in one prodigious leap, clear from the top to the first landing.
Here, in pitch-darkness, he grappled one of his assailants.

For a few seconds they swayed and struggled, and then rolled down the rest of the stairs, over and over each other, grappling and clawing, each trying to tear the other's shirt off.