I felt that a lantern was flashed on me, and that the two men were peering down at the heap on the half-opened trap.

I think that was the worst minute I ever spent, for, as I have said, my courage was not so bad in action, but in a passive game it oozed out of my fingers.
'He is safe enough,' Laputa said, after what seemed to me an eternity.
'The noise was only the rats among the barrels.' I thanked my Maker that they had not noticed the other trap-door.

'All the same I think I'll make him safer,' said Henriques.
Laputa seemed to have caught him by the arm.
'Come back and get to business,' he said.

'I've told you I'll have no more murder.

You will do as I tell you, Mr Henriques.' I did not catch the answer, but the two went out and locked the door.
I patted the outraged Colin, and got to my feet with an aching side where the confounded lid of the trap had been pressing.