A noise roused him from his waking death.
It was the shuffling of feet.
Old Toadie heard it too, and snarled across his shoulder.
"Who the hell's that?"
In the darkness there was a falling flash.
It was Blob; Blob, the brave, who had fulfilled his orders and more. Loyal to his brother-boy, he had slammed the door as bidden, and, himself, the wrong side of it, had come to Kit's assistance.
After all he was a boy, and was not the young gentleman a boy?—and is not all the world against boys?—Boys that must hold together, or they will surely all be lost. Kit heard and lived anew.
III
Before him in the darkness was a muffled tumult. Out of it came Blob's plaintive squeak,
"Give over squeegin"