So resolving, he resumed his sedentary attitude upon the bench, and remained silent, but as before, listening.
By this, the speakers had approached nearer to the door; and their words could now be distinctly heard inside the store-room.
“So!” resumed Holtspur, after listening for a short while; “lovers, as I suspected. He talks of kissing her! I can hear that word above all the others. Ho! they are pressing against the door! What! Surely the key turns in the lock? Can they be coming in?”
The question was answered by the unlocking of the door; which upon the next instant swung silently upon its hinges, until it stood half open. Against the glimmer of the lamp outside, Holtspur could dimly distinguish two forms—one of them a woman.
The male figure was the nearer one; though the woman was close behind.
On opening the door, the sentry had thrust his head inside the room—but evidently without any design of introducing his body.
“Are you sleepin’, Master?” interrogated he, speaking in a tone that did not seem unkindly, and only a little louder than a whisper.
“No,” replied the prisoner, answering the man frankly, while imitating his cautious tone.
“All right, then!” said the sentry: “for there be a lady here as wants to have a word with ye; and as I suppose ye don’t care to do your talkin’ i’ the dark, I’ll lend you my lamp for a bit. But don’t make your dialogue a long ’un: there be danger in what I’m doin’.”
So saying, the trooper walked back into the archway, for the purpose of fetching his lamp; while the woman, pushing past him, stepped inside the room.