Yet the barbarian had vanished, and the noise in the house still continued.
Was it possible that rats and mice--?
No! That was the shriek of a terrified human being--that a cry for help! This sound was the imperious command of a rough man's voice, that--no, he was not mistaken--that was his own name, and it came from the lips of his Myrtilus, anxiously, urgently calling for assistance.
Then he suddenly realized that the white house had been attacked, that his friend must be rescued from robbers or the fury of a mob of Biamites, and, like the bent wood of a projectile when released from the noose which holds it to the ground, the virile energy that characterized him sprang upward with mighty power.

The swift glance that swept the room was sent to discover a weapon, and before it completed the circuit Hermon had already grasped the bronze anchor with the long rod twined with leaves and the teeth turned downward.

Only one of the three little vessels filled with oil that hung from it was burning.

Before swinging the heavy standard aloft, he freed it from the lamps, which struck the floor with a clanging noise.
The man to whom he dealt a blow with this ponderous implement would forget to rise.

Then, as if running for a prize in the gymnasium, he rushed through the darkness to the staircase, and with breathless haste groped his way down the narrow, ladderlike steps.