"I shan't be able to close an eyelid.

I'll try, of course, but I know I shall not succeed.
Come, uncle, come! Oh, do be careful, Mr.Narkom; and if that horrible man does come--" "I'll have him, so help me God!" he vowed.

"Switch off the light, and shut the door as you go out.

This is 'Forty Faces'' Waterloo at last." And in another moment the light snicked out, the door closed, and he was alone in the silent room.
For ten or a dozen minutes not even the bare suggestion of a noise disturbed the absolute stillness; then of a sudden, his trained ear caught a faint sound that made him suck in his breath and rise on his elbow, the better to listen--a sound which came, not without the house, but from within, from the dark hall where he had stationed his men, to be exact.

As he listened he was conscious that some living creature had approached the door, touched the handle, and by the swift, low rustle and the sound of hard breathing, that it had been pounced upon and seized.