Suddenly he started.

From the porter's room, two paces away from him, something shining under the bench to the right caught his eye....

He looked about him--nobody.

He approached the room on tiptoe, went down two steps into it and in a faint voice called the porter.

"Yes, not at home! Somewhere near though, in the yard, for the door is wide open." He dashed to the axe (it was an axe) and pulled it out from under the bench, where it lay between two chunks of wood; at once, before going out, he made it fast in the noose, he thrust both hands into his pockets and went out of the room; no one had noticed him! "When reason fails, the devil helps!" he thought with a strange grin.
This chance raised his spirits extraordinarily.
He walked along quietly and sedately, without hurry, to avoid awakening suspicion.