communication with the landing-place,--no other door but that which
conducted to the bedroom I was to occupy. On either side of my
fireplace was a cupboard without locks, flush with the wall, and
covered with the same dull-brown paper. We examined these
cupboards,--only hooks to suspend female dresses, nothing else; we
sounded the walls,--evidently solid, the outer walls of the building.
Having finished the survey of these apartments, warmed myself a few
moments, and lighted my cigar, I then, still accompanied by F----,
went forth to complete my reconnoitre. In the landing-place there was
another door; it was closed firmly. "Sir," said my servant, in
surprise, "I unlocked this door with all the others when I first came;
it cannot have got locked from the inside, for--"

Before he had finished his sentence, the door, which neither of us
then was touching, opened quietly of itself. We looked at each other a
single instant. The same thought seized both,--some human agency might
be detected here. I rushed in first, my servant followed. A small,
blank, dreary room without furniture; a few empty boxes and hampers in
a corner; a small window; the shutters closed; not even a fireplace;
no other door but that by which we had entered; no carpet on the
floor, and the floor seemed very old, uneven, worm-eaten, mended here
and there, as was shown by the whiter patches on the wood; but no
living being, and no visible place in which a living being could have
hidden. As we stood gazing round, the door by which we had entered
closed as quietly as it had before opened; we were imprisoned.

For the first time I felt a creep of undefinable horror. Not so my
servant. "Why, they don't think to trap us, sir; I could break that
trumpery door with a kick of my foot."