a certain small door,
immediately opposite that by which they had found their way into the
church, must be the one giving access to the vestry, they stole silently
across the pavement, and Phil, having first satisfied himself that the
room, or whatever it was that lay beyond, was in darkness, found the
handle and proceeded to turn it as cautiously as though he believed the
place on the other side to be full of people. The door proved to be
unlocked; and a minute later the fugitives found themselves, as they had
expected, in the vestry of the church. The room was a small one, but it
was lighted by a fairly large window, and as the night happened to be
brilliantly fine and starlit, the gloom here was not nearly so intense
as it had been in the interior of the church, consequently they were
able to distinguish without much difficulty that there were indeed, as
Fray Jose had said, a number of garments of some sort hanging from pegs
on one of the walls. Why these garments should be kept there the
fugitives never troubled themselves to conjecture, the fact that they
were there was sufficient for them; and they lost no time in
appropriating and donning two of them. They were long black garments
reaching from shoulder to ankle, with large hoods which might be drawn
up over the head, almost entirely concealing the features when the
wearer was out of doors, and were confined round the waist by a girdle
of knotted rope. Attired in these, the pair felt that they might safely
brave any but the very closest scrutiny, and they therefore had no
scruples about sallying forth into the open forthwith.

The window of the vestry overlooked a portion of the extensive garden, a
glimpse of which they had gained through the great west door of the
church earlier in the day, and, peering out through it, the two friends
saw that there was a thick shrubbery at no great distance that looked as
though it might afford them good cover from which to reconnoitre the
ground prior to their attempt to gain the street beyond, and they at
once decided to make for it in the first instance. Another moment and
they were at the outer door, which proved to be locked. But the key
was, luckily, in the lock, and on the inner side of the door, that
slight difficulty was therefore soon got over; and a minute later the
pair drew a great breath of relief as they found themselves once more in
the open air--and free.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

HOW THEY ESCAPED FRO