No, he must tarry for no explanation or defense! He must
immediately fly from this terrible place, or else, should he be
discovered, his doom would certainly be sealed!

At that moment, and in the very extremity of his apprehensions,
there fell of a sudden a knock upon the door, sounding so loud
and so startling upon the silence of the room that every
shattered nerve in our hero's frame tingled and thrilled in
answer to it. He stood petrified, scarcely so much as daring to
breathe; and then, observing that his mouth was agape, he
moistened his dry and parching lips, and drew his jaws together
with a snap.

Again there fell the same loud, insistent knock upon the panel,
followed by the imperative words: "Open within!"

The wretched Jonathan flung about him a glance at once of terror
and of despair, but there was for him no possible escape. He was
shut tight in the room with his dead victim, like a rat in a
trap. Nothing remained for him but to obey the summons from
without. Indeed, in the very extremity of his distraction, he
possessed reason enough to perceive that the longer he delayed
opening the door the less innocent he might hope to appear in the
eyes of whoever stood without.

With the uncertain and spasmodic movements of an ill-constructed
automaton, he crossed the room, and stepping very carefully over
the prostrate body upon the floor, and with a hesitating
reluctance that he could in no degree master, he unlocked,
unbolted, and opened the door.