"To the wheel-house, then!"
But as they hastened across the square and into the narrow way, the Black Seigneur again spoke to the man just ahead:
"The hunchback?"
"We left him below, locked up in the Devil's Cage!"
"The Devil's Cage! Quelle bonne plaisanterie! Although," looking back, "it may cost us dear!"
And indeed, behind the sound of pursuit came nearer; the clatter of soldiers' feet grew louder, until, reaching the little square and the guard-house, all tumult suddenly ceased. A momentary silence, strange, ominous, was broken by a din of voices, as the flaring here and there of torches threw grotesque reflections high against the grim background of black masonry.
To those now within the wheel-room, the cause of that abrupt clamor was not difficult to divine; his Excellency's soldiers had found the sentinels overpowered in the guard-house! Would the former stop to investigate; search first those subterranean passages? Already had the prisoners, the weaker of the Black Seigneur's men, filled the car, or hung clinging to the rope above; already was the wheel turning—almost before the key had turned in the lock at the entrance.
"Seigneur!"
"Sanchez?"
"When we left the wheel-room, we closed the door."