"No, stunned, fainting. . . ."
"But the man . . . the man who was with him . . . old Steinweg?"
"He's disappeared. . . ."
"Damn it!"
He rushed along the passage and down the stairs, where he found Dieuzy lying on the first-floor landing, surrounded by people who were attending to him.
He saw Gourel coming up again:
"Oh, Gourel, have you been downstairs? Did you come across anybody?"
"No, chief. . . ."
But Dieuzy was recovering consciousness and, almost before he had opened his eyes, mumbled:
"Here, on the landing, the little door. . . ."