So he desisted, and resolved to remain patient a further quarter of an hour, and then resume his cries for help.
He was standing in the darkness near the window when a slight and curious movement behind him caused him to turn sharply.
Beneath the door he saw a light, but whoever was there wore rubber soles to their shoes, for they made no sound. The slight noise which had fallen upon his strained ears was the slow and stealthy drawing of a bar outside the door.
Someone was creeping noiselessly in!
On tiptoe he crossed, and, seizing the bar of iron, sprang behind the door, his hand raised ready to fell any person who entered.
The handle of the door was very slowly turned, but next second—ere he became aware of it—a strange thing happened.
CHAPTER XXI
LOST DAYS
As the door of the room in which he was imprisoned slowly opened, and he stood ready to attack the new-comer and fight for his liberty, he became suddenly blinded and rendered utterly powerless by a burst of heavy grey smoke.
He drew one whiff of it, and, reeling, fell senseless upon the floor.