There was no light in the entrance and, naturally, the lift wasn’t working for the same reason.
The short walk hadn’t tired him very much, but the need to drag himself up to the third floor was annoying.
The entrance was lit up intermittently by the headlights of passing cars, but on the staircase it was pitch-dark and he had to feel his way along, shuffling his feet up the invisible steps.
The Rector took a short break after the first flight of stairs and then moved on. He clutched the banister with his left hand and held his right hand out into the darkness in front of him so that wouldn’t run into any invisible obstacle. This apparently superfluous precaution was suddenly justified on the landing between the first and second floors, when his fingers touched something soft and undoubt
