When we had watched, therefore, five
minutes more--which seemed to me an hour--I began to lose faith;
and I was on the point of undertaking to persuade Henry to
withdraw, when the voices of men speaking at the door below
reached us, and told me that it was too late. The next moment
their steps crossed the threshold, and they began to ascend, the
boy saying continually, "This way, messieurs, this way!" and
preceding them as he had preceded us. We heard them approach,
breathing heavily, and but for the balustrade, by which I felt
sure that they would guide themselves, and which stood some feet
from our corner, I should have been in a panic lest they should
blunder against us. But they passed safely, and a moment later
the boy opened the door of the room above. We heard them go in,
and without a second's hesitation we crept up after them,
following them so closely that the door was scarcely shut before
we were at it. We heard, therefore, what passed from the first:
the child's request that they would close the shutter, their
hasty compliance, and the silence, strange and pregnant, which
followed, and which was broken at last by a solemn voice.
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