the odd on the left: therefore I reckoned on finding my room the last on
the left at the end of the corridor.

The corridor presently took a sharp turn. As I came round the bend I
heard again the sound of a key and then the rattling of a door knob, but
the corridor bending again, I could not see the author of the noise
until I had turned the corner.

I ran right into a man fumbling at a door on the left-hand side of the
passage, the last door but one. A mirror at the end of the corridor
caught and threw back the reflection of my candle.

The man looked up as I approached. He was wearing a soft black felt hat
and a black overcoat and on his arm hung an umbrella streaming with
rain. His candlestick stood on the floor at his feet. It had apparently
just been extinguished, for my nostrils sniffed the odour of burning
tallow.

"You have a light?" the stranger said in German in a curiously
breathless voice. "I have just come upstairs and the wind blew out my
candle and I could not get the door open. Perhaps you could ..." He
broke off gasping and put his hand to his heart.

"Allow me," I said. The lock of the door was inverted and to open the
door you had to insert the key upside-down. I did so and the door
opened easily. As it swung back I noticed the number of the room was 33,
next door to mine.

"Can I be of any assistance to you? Are you unwell?" I said, at the same
time lifting my candle and scanning the stranger's features.