How many were on their feet then I shall never know, but I was in the narrow passage beside the stairs alone.

Out of the clangor and confusion, the yells and oaths, there came a memory of Billie.

My God! I had forgotten! and she was there, crouching in the blackness, not five feet away.

The thought gave me the reckless strength of insanity.

My feet were upon a rubbish heap of plaster, where a shell had shaken the ceiling to the floor.