Before a great door Baeza stopped and clapped his hands.
A jingle of keys answered him, and rising from the step of another house the watchman of the street crossed the road.

He put a key into the door, opened it, and received the usual twopence.

Baeza and Hillyard passed in.
"Ramon is on the top floor.

We have to climb," said Baeza.
He lit a match, and the two men mounted a staircase with a carved balustrade, made for a king.

Two stories up, the great staircase ended, and another of small, steep and narrow steps succeeded it.