"The sheriffs will write a letter of threats to the pious lady, when they find how much she aided us in escaping."
"They ought," said Todd. "We will pray for her."
Lupin laughed, as he with a light step now crept along the vaulted passage, and reached a massive door at the end of it, up and down which he passed the light several times. Then he muttered to himself—
"Good! Only the lock, and it will need to be a good one if it resist me. I used to be rather an adept at this sort of thing."
"Then you are," said Todd, "a professional—"
He paused, for he did not like to say thief; but Lupin himself added the word, cracksman, and Todd nodded.
"Yes," added Lupin, "I was a cracksman, but I got known, so I thought the chapel dodge would suit me, and it did for a time, and would for some time longer, but that the little accident of which you have heard something took place in the chapel, and that idiot Mrs. Oakley found me out. Ah! you never after all can be a match for a crafty old woman. They will have you at some moment when you least expect it. She regularly sold me."
CHAPTER CXXXIV.
THE ESCAPE, AND THE RETREAT IN CAEN WOOD, HAMPSTEAD.
While Mr. Lupin talked, he did not lose time, but he was working away at the lock of the door at the end of the passage. After a few moments there was a crackling sound, and then the lock yielded to the exertion of Mr. Lupin, and went back into its home. The door, with a wheezing sound, slowly opened.
"All's right," whispered Lupin. "The less we say now, Todd, the better, for our voices will go farther now that we shall be clear of this passage. Come on. Follow me!"