The room was quite large—possibly twenty-five feet square; and it was used as a sleeping-room; but he had no time to take in further details of the place, for at that instant he heard steps approaching through a corridor, and he had barely time to leap behind the door when it was opened from the outside.
Nick had in that instant prepared himself to leap upon the person who approached, whoever it was, and conquer him, preparatory to continuing his investigations through the castle; but fate kindly stepped in and served him a good turn at this juncture.
The opening of the door, together with the already open window, created a draft which the flame of the lamp, burning on the table, could not withstand. As the door swung open, the lamp flared, sputtered for an instant, and then went out, leaving the room in total darkness.
Nick could not even discover the outlines of the person who had entered the room, but a round, French oath, in a masculine voice, cursing at the ill luck, left him in no doubt that it was a man.
The extinguishing of the lamp, however, afforded Nick an excellent opportunity to act, and as the man stepped forward toward the table, in order to strike another light, the detective slipped quietly and quickly past him into the corridor. The man had left the door ajar when he stepped forward toward the table, but Nick had the presence of mind to close it, and to close it with a bang, exactly as if the draft had caught it and slammed it shut.
Then he waited a moment and listened, to discover if his deception had been successful; but there was no further sound from the interior of the room, and the detective concluded that the man had relighted his lamp and disposed himself to reading or some other employment, with no thought that he had passed so near to the person of an intruder.
And just at this point Nick made another discovery which was interesting: there was an inside and outside door to each of the rooms on that corridor. That is, there was one for general use—the one which he had already made use of—and another which opened outward into the corridor, doubtless for use in emergencies.
This door was much heavier than the outside one. They were relics of old days when the castle was likely to be stormed, and the occupants might be compelled to fight from room to room, holding one after another until they were finally driven from all.
Whatever the original uses were, the present one was manifest. The detective lost no time in closing that outside door, and he was agreeably surprised to discover that it was provided with a huge key, which he had no difficulty in removing and replacing on the outside. In another instant he had locked it.
That done, he passed along the corridor toward the doors of the room wherein he had seen the six men; and he had no difficulty in locating it, for he had counted carefully from the outside.