Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/126

110 or not it was the presence of Hannah and her own daring in protecting her precious possessions, or whether it was because of their belief that there was nothing in the closet except a few garments hanging on the walls, that caused the men to make only a hasty and superficial search, she never knew. At all events, they only thrust their hands behind a part of the clothing and then carefully searched the floor for a possible trap door. The trembling young soldier pressed tightly against the wall in the farther corner of the closet, and concealed from sight by the garments behind which he had taken his stand, was not discovered, and when a few minutes had elapsed Claudius Brown called to his followers and returned to the room below. But the expression on his face was by no means reassuring, and the fears in Hannah Nott's heart when she, too, came into the lower room had not departed.