"Thank you, Max! but it is my task. Do my bidding, my good fellow; I have counted the cost."
He waited until the two men had crept away; then, crushing the feeling of eeriness that affected him in spite of himself, he bent his head and went forward into the tunnel. There was at once a scurry of animals past his legs; he felt the furry coats and tails of rabbits brush his hands; but he went slowly forward, touching the wall at his right to guide himself, and wondering how long the tunnel was, and whether there was enough air to carry him through to the end. The atmosphere was stuffy, with mingled smells so nauseating that Harry quickened his pace, eager to escape into purer air again. He had not thought to count his steps when he first entered the tunnel, but began to do so after taking about a dozen. At the fortieth of his counting the wall to his right came to an end. He stopped, and, raising his hand above his head, found that it was not obstructed by the roof: he had evidently come to the end of the passage. He stood upright and listened; he could hear nothing.
Extending his arms, he found that he was in a narrow passage. Max had said that the tunnel led below the keep: there must, then, be a staircase somewhere. Harry went cautiously forward, stopping at every few steps to listen, and placing his feet with great care to avoid coming unawares upon some obstacle. At length his foot touched what felt like a stone step in front of him; another moment, and he was sure he had come to the expected staircase. It was pitch dark; he mounted carefully, and found that the stairs wound round and round. He had just counted fifteen steps, when his head came into violent contact with something above. The blow brought tears to his eyes, and he rubbed his head vigorously, as he had been wont to do after a knock in his childish days.
Feeling with his hands, he discovered that the staircase was roofed over with stone. It appeared to be a slab let down into sockets; yet no, on the left side there was a space of about a finger-width between the stone and the wall, on the right there was no such space. He paused; the stone was so broad that to lift it was clearly impossible; it had never been intended to be moved from below. He bent his head, hitched his left shoulder, and shoved hard against the stone. It did not yield by the smallest interval. For a moment he was puzzled. Then a possible explanation of the space between the stone and the wall at the left occurred to him. Perhaps the stone moved on a pivot? He went to the other side and set his right shoulder to it. At first he felt no yielding; but exerting all his strength he shoved again, the stone slowly gave, and with continued pressure moved over until it came to a vertical position, leaving space enough for his body to pass through. He ascended, keeping his hand on the stone to prevent it from falling back noisily into its place, clambered on to the floor above, let the stone carefully down, and stood up to collect himself before proceeding farther.
Now that he had come thus far, he felt a chill shrinking from what lay before him. He was alone in a strange place, within a few feet of desperate and unscrupulous ruffians, who would kill him with no more compunction than they would spit a hare. The unknown peril might well give the bravest pause. But a thought of his duty stilled his tremors. He had a duty of service to Marlborough, and a duty of friendship to Fanshawe; remembering them, he steeled his soul.
If his hazardous visit was to prove of any service he must discover the nature and position of the defences. He knew little about the construction of castles, but Max had said that the entrance led to the keep, which was the only part of the ruin still habitable. The inmates must therefore be somewhere near him, and it behoved him to move warily. He was apparently in a stone-flagged passage. He took off his boots and slung them round his neck; then went forward a few steps, and came upon another passage at right angles, the farther end being faintly lit as from a distance. Stealing down this, he saw on his right hand the arched entrance to what was clearly the great hall of the keep, a long bare chamber illuminated by two or three smoky candles. Along the walls lay a number of men, sleeping on mattresses, cloaks, bundles of straw. At the farther end was a large table, at which two men were seated, bending forward with heads on their crossed arms, as though dozing. The table was covered with pots and tankards and metal plates. Taking this in at one swift glance, Harry turned to see what lay in the other direction.
A few feet from him was the bottom of another winding stair, which, he conjectured, led to the top of the keep. In the wall to his right there was a narrow opening giving on the courtyard, where he heard the movements of many horses. He was wondering whether, finding the doorway into the courtyard, he might venture to steal across it and explore the other side, when he heard voices from the hall behind him. Quick as thought he slipped back into the dark passage he had first entered, and waited there with beating heart. Peeping round the corner, he saw two men—doubtless the two who had been bending over the table—pass as if towards the staircase. He heard their spurred boots ringing on the stones, and knew by the sounds that they were ascending the stairs, to relieve guard, he guessed, at the top of the keep. There was evidently nothing to be discovered by remaining where he was; if he followed the men he might find a means of exploring the upper part of the fortress. He ran lightly along the passage, and began the ascent of the winding stair, finding himself soon in total darkness. But after about a dozen steps the staircase began to be faintly illuminated from above. Harry paused for a moment to listen. He heard nothing but the footsteps of the men who had preceded him, and was just going on when, through a loophole in the wall to his right, he heard the clatter of a horse's hoofs and the shout of a man. He held his breath and stood still. The horse had evidently just come over the bridge and through the archway into the courtyard. There were now sounds of many voices below; the hoof-beats suddenly ceased, and shortly afterwards Harry heard hurried footsteps on the stone passage he had lately left, and voices growing in volume and echoing in the circular space of the winding stair. Several men were ascending. If he remained where he was he must inevitably be detected; his only course was to continue his ascent. But he had not taken three steps before he heard footsteps above him; the sentry who had been relieved was coming down. His heart was in his mouth. But the men below were the nearer; there was just a chance that if he went higher he might come upon some temporary hiding-place, and in his stocking feet he made no sound that would betray him.
Up then he went; the light was becoming stronger; and a turn of the staircase brought him opposite the doorway through which it shone. The door was gone. He hesitated but for a moment; below and above him the footsteps were perilously near; on the wall of the room he saw two long military cloaks hanging to the floor; they would conceal him. Peeping into the room, he noted with one rapid glance a smoky guttering candle and a figure recumbent on a mattress. He went in on tiptoe, and slipped behind the cloaks. The slight rustle he made disturbed the slumbering man.
"Qui va la?" came the sleepy question.
Harry stood still as a stone, and felt his heart thumping against his ribs.