Chapter Thirteen
The Climber Returns
In utter darkness we groped our way through into the hall of Fontaine’s house, having entered, stealthily, from the rear; for Bernard had selected the study as a suitable base of operations.
So we commenced our ghostly business in the house of the murdered man, a house from which, but a few hours since, his body had been removed. This was such a vigil as I had endured once before, when, with Estephe Bernard and another, I had waited for the coming of one of Chao-Zhang’s death agents.
The putrid dream I had experienced the previous night had plenty of contemplative silence in which to repeat itself in my mind and soon my skin prickled with scenes of debasement and service that were so vivid I could have been forgiven for believing they had actually o
