t any second, and how I was--for it's a
fact--more curious than frightened about it. But the sense of
self-preservation was on me, self-assertive enough, and I obliged him,
stumbling in at the door under the pressure of his strong arm and of the
revolver, and beginning to boggle at the first steps--old and much worn
ones, which were deeply hollowed in the middle. He shoved me forward.

"Up you go," he said, "straight ahead! Put your arms up and out--in front
of you till you feel a door--push it open."

He kept one hand on the scruff of my neck--too tightly for comfort--and
with the other pressed the revolver into the cavity just above it, and in
this fashion we went up. And even in that predicament I must have had my
wits about me, for I counted two-and-twenty steps. Then came the door--a
heavy, iron-studded piece of strong oak, and it was slightly open, and as
I pushed it wider in the darkness, a musty, close smell came from
whatever was within.

"No steps," said he, "straight on! Now then, halt--and keep halting! If
you move one finger, Moneylaws, out fly your brains! No great loss to the
community, my lad--but I've some use for them yet."

He took his hand away from my neck, but the revolver was still pressed
into my hair, and the pressure never relaxed. And suddenly I heard a snap
behind me, and the place in which we stood was lighted up--feebly, but
enough to show me a cell-like sort of room, stone-walled, of course, and
destitute of everything in the furnishing way but a bit of a cranky old
table and a couple of three-legged stools on either side of it. With the
released hand he had snapped the catch of an electric pocket-lamp, and in
its blue glare he drew the revolver away from my head, and stepping
aside, but always covering me with his weapon, motioned me to the further
stool. I obeyed him mechanically, and he pulled the table a little
towards him, sat down on the other stool, and, resting his elbow on the
table ledge, poked the revolver within a few inches of my nose.

"Now, we'll talk for a few minutes, Moneylaws," he said quietly, "Storm
or no storm, I'm bound to be away on my business, and I'd have been off
now if it hadn't been for your cursed peeping and prying. But I don't
want to kill you, unless I'm obliged to, so you'll just serve your own
interests best if you answer a question or two and tell no lies. Are
there more of you outside or about?"

"Not to my knowledge!" said I.

"You came alone?"