Sir Claudius, returning in about half an hour, bade me gruffly follow him, and then led the way down many steps and through gloomy passages until we reached a huge dark subterranean hall, the extreme chilliness of which was deathly and vaultlike in its nature.
'Pleasant, is it not?' sneered my guide. Thereupon he whistled, and a pale-faced lad, dressed in garments made of skins, came quickly out of the darkness and ran towards him.
'Prisoner ready, Saul?' interrogated Sir Claudius.
'Yes, master,' answered the lad, looking from him to me with startled eyes. He added something which I did not catch.
Sir Claudius hesitated a moment before saying to the lad, with a frown, 'Stay here with this lady and take care of her; you understand?'
'Yes, master. I must not let her escape.'
The man nodded.
'I shall soon return,' he said, and vanished into the darkness.
A few moments of intense silence followed. Full of apprehension and dread about my own safety and that of Sir Hubert Blair, I was not thinking at all about the boy, when he startled me by saying in low tones—
'I think you must be the lady who tried to save my grandmother's life?'