And, too, the physical effort, as, step by step, the flexed muscles relaxing so slowly, little by little, gradually, each time as he found foothold on the step higher up, was a terrific strain.

At the top his face was bathed in perspiration, and he wiped it off with his coat sleeve.
It was still dark here, intensely dark, and his eyes, though grown accustomed to it, could make out nothing but the deeper shadow of the walls.

But thanks to her, always a mistress of accurate and minute detail, he possessed a mental plan of his surroundings.

The head of the stairs gave on the middle of the hallway--the hallway ran to his right and left.

To his right, on the opposite side of the hall, was the door of old Luddy's squalid two-room apartment.
For a moment Jimmie Dale stood hesitant--a sudden perplexity and anxiety growing upon him.