about fifteen to twenty
At the same moment the light was extinguished in the upper window , and the outside of the house became a mere wall of dense blackness in the driving rain . Up a long uncarpeted flight of stairs , and into a large lofty room on the second storey , Thord led the way for his newly-found disciples to follow . It was very dark , and they had to feel the steps as they went , their guide offering neither explanation nor apology for the Cimmerian shades of gloom . Stumbling on hands and knees they spoke not a word ; though once Max Graub uttered something like an oath in rough German ; but a whisper from Leroy rebuked and silenced him , and they pursued their difficult ascent until , arriving at the room mentioned , they found themselves in the company of about fifteen to twenty men , all sitting round a table under two flaring billiard lamps , suspended crookedly from the ceiling . As Thord entered , these men all rose , and gave him an expressive sign of greeting with the left hand , the same kind of gesture which had passed between him and Zegota on the Cathedral steps in the morning . Zegota himself was one of their number . There was also another personage in the room who did not rise , and who gave no sign whatever .