It was late when I got there and they--oh, this dreadful night--they broke in, and I, hid on the stairs." "Well, you can hide no longer.

You have got to fight now!" Claude answered grimly, "There are no more stairs for any of us except to heaven! I advise you to find something, and do your worst.

Take the winch-bar if you can find nothing else! And----" He broke off.

Marcadel, who had remained at the stairhead, was calling to him in a voice that could no longer be resisted--a voice of despair.
Claude ran to him.

He found him with his head in the stairway, but with his pike shortened to strike.