“Come,” he said again, and led the way to the stairs, Kenneth tiptoeing after him with wildly beating heart.
CHAPTER X. THE ESCAPE
Treading softly, and with ears straining for the slightest sound, the two men descended to the first floor of the house. They heard nothing to alarm them as they crept down, and not until they paused on the first landing to reconnoitre did they even catch the murmur of voices issuing from the guardroom below. So muffled was the sound that Crispin guessed how matters stood even before he had looked over the balusters into the hall beneath. The faint grey of the dawn was the only light that penetrated the gloom of that pit.
“The Fates are kind, Kenneth,” he whispered. “Those fools sit with closed doors. Come.”
But Kenneth laid his hand upon Galliard's sleeve. “What if the door should open as we pass?”
“Someone will die,” muttered Crispin back. “But pray God that it may not. We must run the risk.”
“Is there no other way?”
“Why, yes,” returned Galliard sardonically, “we can linger here until we are taken. But, oddslife, I'm not so minded. Come.”
And as he spoke he drew the lad along.