I wished with all my heart that I had not come, as I groped upwards hugging the wall.
Then a cry came and a noise of hard breathing.

At the same moment a door opened somewhere above my head, and a faint glow came down the stairs.

Presently with a great rumble a heavy man came rolling past me, butting with his head at the stair-side.

He came to anchor on a landing below me, and finding his feet plunged downwards as if the devil were at his heels.

He left behind him a short Highland knife, which I picked up and put in my pocket.
On his heels came another with his hand clapped to his side, and he moaned as he slithered past me.