" Having said which, the
negro laughed shrilly, and I saw the flash of his teeth ere he
departed.
Balked thus but determined as ever, I turned away and began to follow
the wall, looking for a place where I might climb it by means of some
tree or rise in the ground. And with every step the sudden conviction
I had formed that Trenchard was Haredale grew stronger; and Haredale,
as I knew, was but another name for that evil rogue whose name had
once been Devereux.
I went slowly, scanning every yard of the wall for a likely place, now
in brilliant moonlight, now in shadow, while stronger and stronger
waxed my determination that, supposing Trenchard were Devereux indeed,
I would this night rid the world of him once and for all.
Presently, as I went, resolutely seeking a way to come at my desire, I
found myself stumbling amid the dense gloom of tall trees; but I
pushed on until before me, the moon being now high-risen, I saw the
blackness cleft by a shaft of radiance and, coming nearer, stopped all
at once to scowl at a small door in the wall that seemed to scowl back
at me between deep buttresses.
Now suddenly, as I stood thus, I heard a sound of steps and voices on
the other side of the wall, a key was thrust into the lock of this
door, and instinctively I shrank back and back into the gloom of the
trees; I heard the key turn, the drawing of heavy bolts, and then, as
I crouched, hand upon the weapon in my pocket, the door opened.
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