xtreme
apprehension at the prison-like appearance of the place by the gleam
of light which came through this dusty pane, showing that I was not
entirely removed from the presence of my foes if I was from that of my
friends.

"'Ah, you have spied the window,' remarked my host, advancing toward me
with a countenance he vainly endeavored to make reassuring and friendly.
'That is your post of observation, sir,' he whispered, with a great show
of mystery. 'By mounting on the table you can peer into the room where
my young friends sit securely at play.'

"As it was not part of my scheme to show any special mistrust, I merely
smiled a little grimly, and cast a glance at the table on which stood a
bottle of brandy and one glass.

"'Very good brandy,' he whispered, 'Not such stuff as we give those
fellows down-stairs.'

"I shrugged my shoulders and he slowly backed towards the door.

"'The young men you bid me watch are very quiet,' I suggested, with a
careless wave of my hand towards the room he had mentioned.

"'Oh, there is no one there yet. They begin to straggle in about ten
o'clock.'

"'Ah,' was my quiet rejoinder, 'I am likely, then, to have use for your
brandy.'

"He smiled again and made a swift motion towards the door.

"'If you want anything,' said he, 'just step to the foot of the
staircase and let me know. The whole establishment is at your service.'
And with one final grin that remains in my mind as the most threatening
and diabolical I have ever witnessed, he laid his hand on the knob of
the door and slid quickly out.

"It was done with such an air of final farewell, that I felt my
apprehensions take a positive form. Rushing towards the door through
which he had just vanished, I listened and heard, as I thought, his
stealthy feet descend the stair. But when I sought to follow, I found
myself for the second time overwhelmed by darkness. The gas jet, which
had hitherto burned with great brightness in the small room, had been
turned off from below, and beyond the faint glimmer which found its way
through the small window of which I have spoken, not a ray of light now
disturbed the heavy gloom of this gruesome apartment.

"I had thought of every contingency but this, and for a few minutes
my spirits were dashed. But I soon recovered some remnants of
self-possession, and began feeling for the knob I could no longer see.
Finding it after a few futile attempts, I was relieved to discover that
this door at