Even when the pursuit of us should be begun, it was
in the highest degree unlikely that it would tend in this
direction. The road was hard after a period of dry weather, and we
had left no foot tracks to betray us. But as a precaution I went
out by the cellar door, ascended a short flight of steps and made
my way to the upper room again, where I spread some straw on the
trap door, to hide it from any chance visitor. Then I returned to
the cellar. Our fatigue was so great that in a few moments we were
all asleep.
I was awakened by a touch on my arm. I sat bolt upright in an
instant. Runnles was leaning over me, with his finger at his lips.
The other men were already awake, and seeing, I suppose, a look of
inquiry on my face, Runnles whispered:
"I wakened them first, 'cos they was snoring."
And then I became aware that it was precisely the unexpected that
had happened. There were people in the room above. I heard
footsteps and voices, and then felt no little alarm when another
sound reached my ears--a sound that I could not mistake. It was the
sound of muskets being stacked.
We looked at one another in mute dismay. Had our pursuers hit upon
our tracks at once? It seemed scarcely credible. Yet for a minute
or two I waited in a kind of paralysis, expecting the trap door to
open and a posse of armed soldiers to descend. My anxiety on this
score soon vanished, however, for I heard a heavy thump on the trap
door above, and guessed that either something had been thrown upon
it or that one of the intruders had unwittingly chosen it for his
seat.
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