8
The staircase terminated upon the ground floor, where I found a narrow service corridor leading, after several turnings, to a modest doorway opening into the street.
As I emerged into the night I discovered that the alarm had already spread throughout the neighbourhood.
The lurid glow above the surrounding rooftops had drawn people from every direction, and a considerable crowd had gathered before the building.
Men stood in the roadway, pointing excitedly towards the blazing conservatory, whilst women gazed upwards in evident alarm.
Messengers had already been dispatched in search of the Fire Brigade, and from more than one quarter came the distant clanging of bells.
I mingled quietly amongst the spectators without attracting the slightest attention.
This was in spite of the fact that my clothing was torn and stained, my hands were bleeding from the shattered glass, and I have little doubt that my face bore ample evidence of the terrible experiences through which I had so lately passed.
Yet such was the fascination exercised by the spectacle overhead that no one bestowed so much as a passing glance upon me. Every eye remained fixed upon the great sheet of flame which now crowned the building and illuminated the surrounding streets with an unearthly brilliance.
The fire had by this time gained complete mastery of the conservatory.
The immense glass roof glowed like a furnace, while from within there issued a continuous succession of crashing reports as heated ironwork twisted and shattered panes burst beneath the intolerable strain.
Dense columns of smoke rolled upwards into the night, carrying with them showers of glowing sparks which drifted high above the neighbouring chimneys before vanishing into the darkness.
Suddenly there arose a cry from the crowd.
A moment later there came the sickening sound of a heavy body striking the pavement.
A murmur of horror swept through the assembled spectators, and several men hurried towards the narrow passage between the buildings, whilst others recoiled in instinctive revulsion.
I neither approached nor sought to discover the identity of the unfortunate victim. Whether he or she had attempted the leap and failed, or had chosen another means of escape from the flames, I could not tell, nor have I ever known.
I remained where I was only long enough to assure myself that no further pursuit could possibly threaten me.
Then, feeling suddenly overwhelmed by an exhaustion greater than any I had experienced in all my years of military service, or in the many dangerous adventures which I had shared with Sherlock Holmes, I turned quietly away from the crowd.
My limbs seemed scarcely able to support me, while my mind reeled beneath the extraordinary succession of events through which I had passed.
The courteous faces, the graceful music, the tranquil conversations beneath the palms, and the dreadful revelation to which they had given place, crowded upon one another in bewildering confusion until I almost found myself questioning whether the whole affair had indeed occurred outside the
disordered imaginings of some fevered dream.
Yet the red glow which still illuminated the London sky behind me admitted of no such comforting explanation.
Without once looking back, I passed slowly into the darkness, leaving behind me the blazing conservatory, the gathering crowd, and the terrible mystery of that singular society, whose true purpose, and whose ultimate fate,
remain among the most inexplicable problems it has ever been my misfortune to encounter.
*