No doubt he interpreted the sounds correctly. The man returned presently. Then they all marched to the house, pushing Johnny before them.
Arrived at the house, they thrust Johnny unceremoniously into a dark cellar and barred the doors behind him.
The place was cold and damp; full of evil smells. There were rats. He could hear them scurrying about as he made his way over the uneven floor.
There were two windows. These were high up and very narrow. If he pried one of them open could he escape? The thing seemed dubious. Soon enough he discovered that his captors had left nothing to the imagination. The windows were heavily barred on the outside.
“Been used as a prison before!” His blood went cold at the thought of the dark deeds that might have taken place in this evil smelling and gloomy hole.
Feeling his way back to the stairs, he crawled part way up, then sat down. He would not dare sleep because of the rats. On the stairs he was safest from them.
He heard the gangsters rattling the lids of a stove.
“Going to cook a meal,” he told himself.
He did not expect to be fed. He was not.
Very soon he began to realize that there was something besides food in the house. There was intoxicating drink. The party became noisy. Moment by moment the hubbub increased in volume until it was a revel.