the great, misshapen head upon the tiny, agile body.

Wildly, I fired again. I hurled myself forward and dashed into
the room.

Like nothing so much as a cat, the gleaming body (the dwarf was
but scantily clothed) streaked through the open window!

Certain death, I thought, must be his lot upon the stones of the
court far below. I ran and looked down, shaking in every limb,
my mind filled with a loathing terror unlike anything I had ever
known.

Brilliant moonlight flooded the pavement beneath; for twenty yards
to left and right every stone was visible.

The court was empty!

Human, homely London moved and wrought intimately about me; but
there, at sight of the empty court below, a great loneliness swept
down like a mantle--a clammy mantle of the fabric of dread. I
stood remote from my fellows, in an evil world peopled with the
creatures of Hassan of Aleppo.

Moved by some instinct, as that of a frightened child, I dropped
to my knees and buried my face in trembling hands.