r
vessels are at the bottom, with the crucifix, on some soft stuff....
That is it. Slide in and let yourself slip. There is some food and drink
there, too."

Robin did so. The floor of the little chamber was about five feet down,
and he could feel woodwork on all three sides of him.

"When the door is closed," said the voice from the daylight, "push a
pair of bolts on right and left till they go home. Tap upon the shutter
when it is done."

The light vanished, and Robin was aware of a faint smell of smoke. Then
he remembered that he had noticed a newly lit fire on the hearth of the
hall.... He found the bolts, pushed them, and tapped lightly three
times. He heard a hand push on the shutter to see that all was secure,
and then footsteps go away over the floor on a level with his chin.

Then he remembered that he must be in the same chamber with his two
fellow-priests, separated from them by the flooring on which he stood.
He rapped gently with his foot twice. Two soft taps came back. Silence
followed.

IV

Time, as once before in his experience, seemed wholly banished from this
place. There were moments of reflection when he appeared to himself as
having but just entered; there were other moments when he might have
been here for an eternity that had no divisions to mark it. He was in
complete and utter darkness. There was not a crack anywhere in the
woodwork (so perfect had been the young carpenter's handiwork) by which
even a glimmer of light could enter. A while ago he had been in the
early morning sunlight; now he might be in the grave.

For a while his emotions and his thoughts raced one another, tumbling in
inextricable confusion; and they were all emotions and thoughts of the
present: intense little visions of the men closing round the house,
cutting off escape from the valley on the one side and from the wild
upland country on the other; questions as to where Mr. John would hide
himself; minute sensible impressions of the smoky flavour of the air,
the unplaned woodwork, the soft stuffs beneath his feet. Then they began
to extend themselves wider, all with that rapid unjarring swiftness: he
foresaw the bursting in of his stronghold; the footsteps within three
inches of his head; the crash as the board was kicked in: then the
capture; the ride to Derby, bound on a horse; the gaol; the questioning;
the faces of my lord Shrewsbury and the magistrates ... and the end....

There were moments when the sweat r