I put my revolver between my teeth.

A quick spring, and I shall be on the window-ledge.
But--the ladder! I had been obliged to press on it heavily, and my foot had scarcely left it, when I felt it swaying beneath me.

It grated on the wall and fell.

But, already, my knees were touching the window-sill, and, by a movement quick as lightning, I got on to it.
"But the murderer had been even quicker than I had been.

He had heard the grating of the ladder on the wall, and I saw the monstrous back of the man raise itself.