He had scolded a coward with hasty words, and been forced to follow where they led.

To this loathsome hole.

Behind him, a door closed, a bar scraped softly into place.

Before him, as he groped in rage and self-reproach, rose a vault of solid plaster, narrow as a chimney.
But presently, glancing upward, he saw a small cluster of stars blinking, voluptuous, immeasurably overhead.

Their pittance of light, as his eyesight cleared, showed a ladder rising flat against the wall.