On the 20th storey of a burning house

One is, as it were, on the 20th storey of a burning house, and from the window there is a narrow plank leading across the street to the balcony of an —apparently — safe building opposite. (The Building Opposite whose blinds are always down, whose chimneys never smoke, whose doors never open, where no light is seen at night, about which there has been one's frequent yet always inconclusive speculation.) To stay is to be burned for certain. By attempting the plank one will probably fall — still one knows one will have to walk that plank or burn.

Osbert Moore (1948, Nov.)