The first one he handled entered the lock and threw back the bolt.
Cautiously swinging the door open, he suddenly started, at the sound of some one approaching in the corridor. In a second he was back in the dark hole and had locked the door again upon himself. Weaver, the jailer, making an unusual round of the premises, came down the dungeon-steps and tried the door. Satisfied that all was well, he proceeded onward to his bed.
Adam lost little time in again starting forth. This time he locked the dungeon and took his bunch of keys with him. He climbed the nine steps, which the jailer’s wife had so frequently counted, and found himself in the corridor, which was lighted by a single lamp, which was small and odorous. Noting his bearings, he limped along toward the cell where he thought he had heard the beef-eaters talking.
There was no sound to give him guidance now, and there were several doors confronting him, behind any one of which his retinue might be locked. It was a matter presenting necessities for nicety in judgment. If he were to open the door on some wrong prisoner, the ensuing disturbance would be most unfortunate. Moreover, he did not know but what there might be guards galore in some of the jail-apartments. It would not do to call, or to whisper, for the sake of attracting the beef-eaters’ attention, for obvious reasons.
There was nothing for it but to open door after door till he found the faithful pair. Luckily the doors were numbered, and he found there were corresponding numbers on the keys. There being no choice, he unlocked the first door he saw. Shifting the bolt cautiously, he was presently able to listen for anything like a sound inside the cell.
He could hear nothing. The room was empty. To the next door he went, and repeated his simple experiment. This apartment proved to be, not a cell, but a place in which all manner of rubbish had been thrown. It also contained swords, pistols, some blunderbusses and other arms. The room, indeed, was the prison armory. Adam nodded at this discovery as being good, but it left him as far as before from his friends. Leaving this door unlocked, he went back in the other direction and tried again.
Listening now, as before, upon opening a second cell, he heard snoring. Better than this, it was snoring that he knew. He went in and nudged the retinue with his foot.
“What, ho! Who knocks?” said Halberd, in a sleepy growl.
“Be quiet,” said Adam. “Get up, the two of you, quickly. We are about to seek more commodious apartments.”
“The Sachem!” said Pike.