"Ah!" Henry said. "And you wish us to close it?"
"If you please, messieurs."
"We do please," Henry replied, saluting him with mock reverence.
"You may consider the shutter closed. Lead on, Monsieur; we
follow."
For the first time the boy looked doubtful; but he turned without
saying anything, and passing through the doorway, was in an
instant lost in the pitchy darkness of the entry. I laid my hand
on the King's arm, and tried to induce him not to follow; fearing
much that this might be some new thieves' trap, leading nowhither
save to the POIRE D'ANGOISSE and the poniard. But the attempt
was hopeless from the first; he broke from me and entered, and I
followed him.
We groped for the balustrade and found it, and began to ascend,
guided by the boy's voice; who kept a little before us, saying
continually, "This way, messieurs; this way!" His words had so
much the sound of a signal, and the staircase was so dark and
ill-smelling, that, expecting every moment to be seized or to
have a knife in my back, I found it almost interminable.
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