The boy stopped short:

"Mother."

"What? Do you hear anything?"

"Some one walking."

"Are you sure?"

"Some one coming this way."

"Oh," she said, in a hollow voice, "it's the murderer coming back from the Priory!"

She felt her revolver and prepared herself for anything that might happen. But suddenly she pushed François towards a dark corner on her left, formed by the entry to one of those tunnels, probably blocked, which she had noticed when she came.

"Get in there," she said. "We shall be all right here: he will not see us."

The sound approached.