"Run for it.

Get a light.

Start a fire, and be damned quick about it!" "And who the hell might you gents be ?" queried Ben Swann, leaning against the side of the doorway to dicker.
"Throw that fool on his head," said one of the strangers, "and go on in, Lee!" "Stand aside," said the other, and swept the doorknob out of Ben's grip, flattening Ben himself against the wall.

While he struggled there, gasping, a man and a woman slipped past him.
"Tell him who we are," said the woman's voice.

"We'll go to the living-room, Buck, and start a fire." The strangers apparently knew their way even in the dark, for presently he heard the scraping of wood on the hearth in the living-room.