“My name is Darrell,” said the fugitive hastily. “But, if you are discovered, answer no questions, as you value your life. Wrap yourself in my cloak, and keep it. Remember! not a word!”
So saying, he huddled the mantle over Wood's shoulders, dashed the lantern to the ground, and extinguished the light. A moment afterwards, the door was closed and bolted, and the carpenter found himself alone.
“Mercy on us!” cried he, as a thrill of apprehension ran through his frame. “The Dutchman was right, after all.”
This exclamation had scarcely escaped him, when the discharge of a pistol was heard, and a bullet whizzed past his ears.
“I have him!” cried a voice in triumph.
A man, then, rushed up the entry, and, seizing the unlucky carpenter by the collar, presented a drawn sword to his throat. This person was speedily followed by half a dozen others, some of whom carried flambeaux.
“Mur—der!” roared Wood, struggling to free himself from his assailant, by whom he was half strangled.
“Damnation!” exclaimed one of the leaders of the party in a furious tone, snatching a torch from an attendant, and throwing its light full upon the face of the carpenter; “this is not the villain, Sir Cecil.”
“So I find, Rowland,” replied the other, in accents of deep disappointment, and at the same time relinquishing his grasp. “I could have sworn I saw him enter this passage. And how comes his cloak on this knave's shoulders?”
“It is his cloak, of a surety,” returned Rowland “Harkye, sirrah,” continued he, haughtily interrogating Wood; “where is the person from whom you received this mantle?”