“Ditto one of these,” added Silvers, and slipped a bottle of wine into his coat pocket.
The wood passed they came in sight of the chateau, a pretty place, built of stone, covered with ivy, and set in a park of shrubbery. Back of the chateau were a barn and several other outbuildings.
A light was burning in an upper room of the chateau, but otherwise the entire place was dark.
“Let us make for the barns,” whispered Silvers. “They ought to afford some sort of a hiding place.”
Henry was willing, and in a trice they had leaped the fence fronting a road and were running to the nearest of the outbuildings, which loomed up vaguely in the darkness. The shelter of the structure gained, they found an open door and ran inside.
The barn was divided into two parts, one for the horses, of which there were four, and the other for hay and grain. Back of the barn were a cow-shed and a milk house.
“Shall we get into the hay?” whispered Henry. They could already hear the pursuers on the roadway.
“They will be sure to search that,” answered Silvers. “Wait a second.”
The sharpshooter bent down and tried several of the boards of the floor. As he had hoped, one was loose, and beneath was an opening of no mean size.
“Just the thing. In you go,” he went on, and Henry dropped down, followed by his companion, and the board was lowered into place over them.