Page:Randall Parrish - The Red Mist.djvu/397

 Rh there, and bear me along with the others. I wiggled out from under the weight of the body lying across my legs, and groped about in the dark until my fingers encountered the ring embedded in the floor. I still lay thus, conscious of soreness in every muscle, afraid of attracting some eye if I moved, when a man leaped onto the platform, and strode across to the nearest window, his rough shoe actually grazing my hand as he passed. I heard him call some order to those without; then the thud of horses' hoofs to the left. The fellow leaned far out, watching.

There would be no better time than this, for no one else was within thirty feet of me, and the light of the sputtering torch still left the pulpit platform in shadow; Fox was at the other end of the church, his sharp voice rasping out orders. I got to my knees, and lifted the trap barely far enough to squeeze through. There was a gleam of light below, sufficient to reveal the dark outline of the steps leading down. Some eye might distinguish the glimmer, yet I thrust my body through the narrow opening noiselessly, and lowered the cover to the floor level. There was no cry, no sound indicating that the movement had been observed. I waited an instant, crouched breathlessly on the upper step, listening. Someone walked across, directly over my