n a glance, as I made for the open door at the end,
before which a boy of my own size ran as if to stop me; but even if I
had wished to stop just then I could not, and I gave him a sharp push,
the weight of my body driving him back into a sitting position as I
stumbled in from the pavement, up a couple of stone steps, and on to the
boards of the narrow passage, which seemed, by contrast to the bright
sunshine outside, quite dark.

I did not stop, but went on as if by instinct to the end, passed a
flight of steps leading down to the cellar kitchen, up which came a
noisome odour that turned me sick, and began to ascend the stairs before
me.

Then I paused for a moment with my hand on a sticky balustrade and
listened.

Yes! I was quite right, for up above me I could hear the stairs
creaking as if some one was going up; and to make me the more sure that
the boy had not entered a room I could hear his hoarse panting,
accompanied by a faint whimpering cry, as if every moment or two he kept
saying softly, "Oh!"

That satisfied me, and as fast as I could I went up one flight and then
another of dirty creaking stairs and found myself on the first floor.
Then up another flight, dirtier, more creaking, and with the woodwork
broken away here and there.

Up another flight worse still, and by the light of a staircase window I
could see that the plaster ceiling was down here and there, showing the
laths, while the wall was blackened by hands passing over it. On the
handrail side the balusters were broken out entirely in the most
dangerous way; but all this seemed of no consequence whatever, for there
was the boy still going on, evidently to the very top of the house.

All at once there was silence above me, and I thought he must have gone,
but he was only listening, and as he heard me coming he uttered a faint
cry, and went on up whimpering, evidently so much exhausted by the long
chase that he could hardly drag himself up higher.

By this time I was up to the second floor, where there were a couple of
battered doors and another staircase window nearly without glass, the
broken panes being covered with paper pasted on, or else, fortunately
for the inhabitants of the noisome place, left open for the air to blow
through.

I ought to have stopped; in fact I ought never to have gone; but I was
too much excited by my chase to think of anything but getting hold of
that boy and shaking him till he dropped our new rope; and now as