"Why did you not get a key from him?"
"I have one; it opens the back door."
Toro had, during the last bit of conversation, been growling to himself a choice vocabulary of Italian oaths, occasionally shaking his fist at the building which contained the objects of his hatred.
He now turned to his companions.
"And where do you propose to pass the two hours that must elapse?"
"At the bottom of yonder field is a thicket, where we shall be free from observation. We can smoke our pipes there. By-the-bye, the patrol goes round about midnight."
"We must be cautious," said Hunston.
"Come along, then."
The three villains then walked off in the direction of the thicket where they were to hide.
A minute afterwards a shadow rose from the ditch where he had been crouching, and stood looking after them long after they had been lost in the gloom.