M THE INQUISITION.

Yes; free--in a sense; yet not wholly so; for they were still within the
boundaries of the Holy Inquisition, although outside the building. To
have done so much as they had, however; to have evaded capture for the
best part of a day, and finally to have won outside the walls,
undetected, was no mean achievement; and they felt that, having
accomplished so much, the rest ought to be an easy matter.

Standing within the deep shadow of the doorway for a minute or two after
they had silently closed the door behind them, the pair searched with
their gaze as much of the garden as came within the range of their
vision, and nowhere could they detect any sign of human presence within
it; indeed they scarcely expected to do so, for it was now altogether
too dark for anything in the nature of gardening operations; moreover,
they surmised that it was about the hour when everybody connected with
the establishment would be at supper. Therefore, feeling that the
moment was propitious, they left the shelter of the doorway, and,
keeping as closely within the shadow of the building as they could,
moved off toward the shrubbery, into the dense obscurity of which they
plunged a minute or two later. Here, as they wound their way cautiously
among the bushes, they suddenly found themselves close to a long low
block of buildings which, being entirely in darkness, they surmised must
be sheds devoted to the storage of the gardeners' tools, implements, and
paraphernalia generally, and they at once halted and subjected the
buildings to careful examination; for, their weapons having been taken
away from them by the soldiers who had seized them, weapons of some sort
were now a first necessity with them, and they hoped that the sheds
might at least afford them a knife apiece, if nothing better.
Investigation, however, resulted in the discovery that the sheds were
locked; but this difficulty was soon overcome by the simple process of
breaking a pane of glass, inserting a hand, unfastening the hasp, and
entering through the open window, when their enterprise was eventually
rewarded by the discovery of several formidable pruning knives, two of
which, together with a couple of short, stout iron bars, and a length of
thin, strong rope, they unhesitatingly appropriated.

The two adventurers now felt that, whatever might befall them, they were
no longer altogether defenceless, and leaving the sheds behind them,
they again plunged int