i followed him through the snarl of dimly-lit passageways crammed floor-to-ceiling with unopened yet-to-be catalogued crates , walls festooned with cobwebs and coated in fifty years ' worth of grime , his cane going click , click , click on the dusty floor , the smell of preserving solution , the tartness of death upon the tongue , deep pools of shadow , feeble haloes of yellow gaslight , and the awful loneliness of being just one small person in a vast space .