“Only got a handful of this ’bacco, my boy. I don’t see any fun in buying it where there’s hundredweights down here.”
“Bring me a handful too.”
Hilary could resist the temptation no longer, and rising softly, he peered over the piled-up boxes and tubs to get a better view of the place, and make out where the door of exit lay. This he ascertained at a glance, and likewise obtained a pretty good idea of the shape and extent of the vault before the men took up their candles to go.
Now was the critical moment. Would they raise their eyes and see where there was a stone missing in the ceiling? A few moments would decide it, and so excited was Hilary now that he could not refrain from watching the men, though the act was excessively dangerous, and if they had turned their heads in his direction they must have seen him.
But they did not turn their heads as it happened, but went by within a yard of where the young officer was concealed. Then he saw them mount some broad rugged old steps beneath a little archway, whose stones were covered with chisel-marks; there was a Rembrandtish effect as they turned round the winding stair, and then there was the clang of a heavy door, and darkness reigned once more in the vault, for Hilary was alone.
For a few minutes he dared not stir for fear that some one or other of the men might return; but as the time wore on, and he could only hear the sounds of talking in a distant muffled way, he descended from his awkward position, reached the stone floor, and feeling his way along reached the opening through which the men had come, and then stumbling two or three times, and barely saving himself from falling, he found his way to where they had been at work, for his hand came in contact with one of the rough candlesticks thick with grease.
Sure thus far, he was not long in finding the doorway, where he stood listening to dull sounds from above, and then crept back a little way so as to be able to retreat in case the men were coming back, and touching a keg with his foot he sat down upon it to think.
If the door at the top of the stairs was locked he would be no better off than in the chapel, for it was not likely that there would be a window to this place, so that if he meant to escape he felt that it would be better not to leave it to daylight; though, on the other hand, if he did leave it to daybreak, and the door was unfastened, he would have an admirable opportunity of getting away, for by that time the men would have done their night’s work, and would probably be fast asleep.
“It is of no use for me to play the coward,” said Hilary to himself at last. “If I am to get away it must be by a bold dash.”
He burst out into a hearty fit of silent laughter here.