However, despite my efforts to be still, I soon made a slight noise.
“My God!” cried the workman. “Was that him?”
“Couldn’t be,” replied Louis. “But I’ll look again and make sure.”
He dropped his hammer and came mincing to my side. As he bent over me I opened my eyes and looked square into his face. He hissed between his teeth for silence and laid his clumsy hand over my mouth for an instant. Then he got up and rejoined his companion.
“He’s as dead as a rock, and getting stiff. No fear of him, Barker.”
“If he’s dead,” returned Barker, “devil a fear have I. I’ll risk his ghost.” Then he added after a pause: “I hope we shall get out of here before night.”
“Little chance of that,” said Louis. “This is not a job the patroon will have finished in daylight.”
“Is he coming himself to see us bury him?”
“Yes. Get to work. This isn’t much of a coffin; but, such as it is, it must be finished against his coming back.”
So they were making my coffin and were going to bury me. “If they could,” I thought. But perhaps they had reckoned without me. If I made a sudden spring I could easily master Barker, or both of them if Louis proved my enemy. But Louis knew not only that I was alive, but also that I was conscious. Had he been playing me false he would not have deceived his partner. So I observed his warning to be silent, and lay perfectly still for some time.