If I did not cry out, it was because fear had me by the throat; and if
I did not fall, it was more by Heaven's mercy than my own strength. It
was not only that the flash shone in on every side through breaches in
the wall, so that I seemed to be clambering aloft upon an open scaffold,
but the same passing brightness showed me the steps were of unequal
length, and that one of my feet rested that moment within two inches of
the well.

This was the grand stair! I thought; and with the thought, a gust of a
kind of angry courage came into my heart. My uncle had sent me here,
certainly to run great risks, perhaps to die. I swore I would settle
that "perhaps," if I should break my neck for it; got me down upon my
hands and knees; and as slowly as a snail, feeling before me every inch,
and testing the solidity of every stone, I continued to ascend the
stair. The darkness, by contrast with the flash, appeared to have
redoubled; nor was that all, for my ears were now troubled and my mind
confounded by a great stir of bats in the top part of the tower, and the
foul beasts, flying downwards, sometimes beat about my face and body.

The tower, I should have said, was square; and in every corner the step
was made of a great stone of a different shape, to join the flights.
Well, I had come close to one of these turns, when, feeling forward as
usual, my hand slipped upon an edge and found nothing but emptiness
beyond it. The stair had been carried no higher: to set a stranger
mounting it in the darkness was to send him straight to his death; and
(although, thanks to the lightning and my own precautions, I was safe
enough) the mere thought of the peril in which I might have stood, and
the dreadful height I might have fallen from, brought out the sweat upon
my body and relaxed my joints.

But I knew what I wanted now, and turned and groped my way down again,
with a wonderful anger in my heart. About half-way down, the wind sprang
up in a clap and shook the tower and died again; the rain followed; and
before I had reached the ground level it fell in buckets. I put out my
head into the storm, and looked along towards the kitchen. The door,
which I had shut behind me when I left, now stood open, and shed a
little glimmer of light; and I thought I could see a figure standing in
the rain, quite still, like a man hearkening. And then there came a
blinding flash, which showed me my uncle plainly, just where I had
fancied him to stand; and ha