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 it is
a--"

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 around, 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."

"Try first if it will open to your hand," said I, shaking off the vague
apprehension that had seized me, "while I open the shutters and see what
is without."

I unbarred the shutters--the window looked on the little backyard I have
before described; there was no ledge without--nothing but sheer descent.
No man getting out of that window would have found any footing till he