He stepped back, then came up quickly to the glass, all the dull quietude of manner leaving him.

As he did so a glimpse of the outside world came again, and now he saw a little hole in the paper not larger than a pin's head.

To scrape at this was a simple instinct.

In a moment he saw it enlarging, as the paper peeled off from the glass.

Scraping away with his finger-nail, the glass was soon cleared of paper for the space of an inch in diameter, and through this opening he stood gazing out upon the yards, below, and the houses that came up to them from a neighboring street.