“Would you even give up the search—and go straight back home?” asked the girl sharply.
Here, then, was their chance of escape. If they would promise—Molly looked at Jack. What would the Pumpkin do to Jack—to her—when he came? She shuddered. Then she thought of Old Nancy, and the King, and Glan, and she knew that what the girl asked of them was impossible. She and Jack exchanged glances again. They had decided. They would take their chance.
“Would you promise?” asked the girl.
“No,” answered Jack and Molly together.
“Hurry up and push them in, then, mother.” The girl turned away, dismissing the subject immediately.
The old woman, chuckling to herself, opened a door in the wall (which the children had not noticed before) and told them to follow her to the “drorin’-room” unless they wanted to be “fetched” there. So they followed her.
It was pitch dark on the other side of the door, and the old woman called out to the girl in green to hold a light for them, which she did, standing in the doorway holding a flickering taper above her head. Jack and Molly followed the old woman along a short passage, down a flight of stone steps to a door at the bottom. She took a key from her pocket, and calling to the girl in green again, telling her to hold the light at the top of the steps, she fumbled at the lock, opened the door, and then, without more ado, she pushed Jack and Molly inside, and slammed the door on them. They heard her lock the door, then go shuffling up the steps, grumbling to herself. Then another door banged—and all was silent.
Jack and Molly were in absolute darkness, and could not see an inch in front of them. They dared not move, but stood still clinging hold of each other.
“Oh, Jack, why did we trust her?” sobbed Molly.