He was quite cool and watchful.

He knew that he was in danger.
These men were wild and ignorant.

They were mad with drink and the brave words of the agitator.
"Choose now!" he shouted, feeling for the handle of the door behind his back.
They made no sign, but watched the faces of their leaders.
"If I go now," said Paul, "I never come again!" He opened the door.

The men whom he had nursed and clothed and fed, whose lives he had saved again and again, stood sullen and silent.
Paul passed slowly out and closed the door behind him.

Without it was dark and still.