There was not a moment to lose, but I was as if in a nightmare, and could not stir, till, wrenching myself away, I darted across the office to the outer door, slipped the bolts, and turned the key with frantic haste, just as his steps sounded overhead, and I heard him calling me by name. The door stuck, and I could not get it open, and all the time I could hear him coming. He ran across the room, every footstep seeming to come down upon my head like lead. He was descending the stairs, and still that door stuck fast at the top. In a despairing moment, I looked behind me to see the light shining in at the glass door as he descended, and then my hand glided to the top of the door, and I found that I had not quite shot back the bolt. The next moment it was free, the door open, and I was through; but, feeling that he would catch me in the yard, I tore out the key, thrust it into the hole with trembling fingers, and as he dashed open the inner door I closed the one where I stood, and locked it from the outside. I had somehow held on to my bundles, and was about to run across the yard to the pump in the corner, place one foot upon the spout, and by this means reach the top of the wall, when I stopped, paralysed once more by the fierce barking of the dog. To my horror I found that he was loose, for his hoarse growling came from quite another part of the yard to that where his kennel was fixed; and I stood outside the door, between two enemies, as a faint streak of light shot out through the keyhole, playing strangely upon the bright handle of the key.--"Are you there, Antony? Come back this moment, sir. Unlock this door." I did not answer, but stood fast, as the handle was tried and shaken again and again. "You scoundrel! come back, or it will be worse for you. Leo, Leo, Leo!" The dog answered the indistinctly heard voice with a sharp burst of barking; and as the sound came nearer, I seemed to see the animal's heavy bull-head, and his sharp teeth about to be fixed in my throat. The perspiration dripped from me, and in my horror I heard Mr Blakeford exclaim-- "You are there, you scoundrel, I know. I heard you lock the door. Come in directly, or I'll half kill you." My hoarse breathing was the only sound I heard. Then, directly after, there were hasty steps crossing the office, and I knew he had gone round to reach the front. There was not a moment to lose, and I was about to risk the dog's attack, sooner than face Mr Blakeford, when a thought struck me. I had the little bundle loosely tied up in a handkerchief, and in it the bread and meat. This might quiet the dog; and with a courage I did not know I possessed, I hastily tore it open, and taking a couple of steps into the yard, called out, in a loud quick voice, "Here, Leo, Leo!" throwing the bread and meat towards where I believed the dog to be.