Then the
couple disappeared in the darkness.
"On to the house!" I cried in sudden excitement. For I was angry now,
angry at the utter, humbling scorn with which they treated me.
Another ten minutes' groping brought us in front of the old gray house
which we had seen from the sea. We walked boldly up to it. The door
stood open. We went in, and found ourselves in a large hall. The
wooden floor was carpeted, here and there, with mats and skins. A
long table ran down the middle. The walls were decorated with mediaeval
armor and weapons. The windows were but narrow slits, the walls
massive and deep. The door was a ponderous, iron-bound affair, that
shamed even the stout doors of our inn. I called loudly, "Is any one
here?" Nobody answered. The servants must have been drawn off to the
town by the excitement of the procession and the singing; or perhaps
there were no servants. I could not tell. I sat down in a large
armchair by the table. I enjoyed the sense of proprietorship. Denny
sat on the table by me, dangling his legs. For a long while none of us
spoke. Then I exclaimed, suddenly:
"By heaven! why shouldn't we see it through?" And I rose and put my
hands against the massive door, and closed and bolted it, saying, "Let
them open that at six o'clock in the morning."
"Hurrah!" cried Denny, leaping down from his table, on fire with
excitement in a moment.
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