. . . He plucked up courage
and continued, one hand on the wall on his left. Then a sound broke the
silence--a scuffle, and the long grate of something heavy dragged on a
rough floor. Presently his fingers felt a door. The noise was inside that
door. There were big cracks in the panelling through which an eye could
look, but all was dark within. There were human beings moving there, and
speaking softly. Very gingerly he tried the hasp, but it was fastened firm
inside.
Suddenly someone in the room struck a flint and lit a lantern. Lovel set
his eyes to a crack and stood very still. The woman had gone, and the room
held three men. One lay on the floor with a coarse kerchief, such as grooms
wear, knotted round his throat. Over him bent a man in a long coat with a
cape, a man in a dark peruke, whose face was clear in the lantern's light.
Lovel knew him for one Bedloe, a
led-captain and cardsharper, whom he had himself employed on occasion. The
third man stood apart and appeared from his gesticulations to be speaking
rapidly.
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