The very intensity of silence seemed to press against him from every direction as though it had weight.

He was still breathing heavily, but his strained ears could not distinguish the slightest sound where he knew Burke lay shrouded In the darkness.

Nothing reached him to break the dread, horrible silence, excepting that far-off, lonely trickle of dripping water.

He hesitated, match in hand, shrinking childishly from the coming revealment of his victim.

Yet why should he?
Fierce as the struggle had proved, on his part the fight had been entirely one of defence.