A queer panic passed from one to the other.

They were awed by the imminence of dreadful uncomprehended things.

They waited in silence, like people under a spell, and from somewhere in the house above their heads, there sounded a loud rapping upon a door.

They held their breath, straining to hear the grate of a key in a lock, and the opening of that door.

They heard only the knocking repeated and repeated again.