They had waited
there, in the valley, till the intermittent signals had reached the
level ground and ceased, and had then ridden up cautiously in time to
meet the informer's companion, and to learn that the fugitive had
doubled suddenly back towards Booth's Edge. There they had waited then,
till the dawn was imminent, and, with it, there came the party on foot,
as had been arranged; then, all together, numbering about twenty-five
men, they had pushed on in the direction of Mistress Manners' house.
As the house came into view, more than ever Mr. Audrey reproached his
evil luck. Certainly there still were two or three chances to one that
no priest would be taken at all; since, first, the man might not be a
priest, and next, he might have passed the manor and plunged back again
into the hills. But it was not very pleasant work, this rousing of a
house inhabited by a woman for whom the magistrate had very far from
unkindly feelings, and on such an errand.... So the informers marvelled
at the venom with which Mr. Audrey occasionally whispered at them in the
dark.
His heart sank as he caught a glimpse of a light first showing, and then
suddenly extinguished, in the windows of the hall, but he was relieved
to hear no comment on it from the men who walked by his horse; he even
hoped that they had not seen it.... But he must do his duty, he said to
himself.
* * * * *
He grew a little warm and impatient when no answer came to the knocking.
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