No light, no footfall, no voice.

He stepped on to the landing; stretching out his hands in the darkness, he touched a wall on the left; he went forward towards the right, feeling his way.

By touching them with his foot he became aware of two flights of stairs which branched from the landing.
He waited again, never doubting the priest would return.
Five minutes, ten minutes passed and the priest did not come.

What could have happened.

Had they wished to deceive him, to make sport of him?
But why?
Benedetto would not allow himself to dwell upon a suspicion about which it was useless to speculate.