Gaston looked and made a quick step forward.  Sure enough, there upon the floor, bound hand and foot with leather thongs that had been pulled cruelly tight, lay the emaciated figure of what had once been a handsome and healthy boy, but was now little more than a living skeleton.  His face still retained its beauty of outline, though these outlines were terribly pinched and sharpened, but the expression of abject terror in the great blue eyes was pitiful to behold, and as Gaston and Raymond bent over the boy, a shrill cry, as of agony or terror, broke from his pale lips.

“Who are you?” he gasped.  “How have you come?  Oh, do not touch me —­ do not hurt me!  Go —­ go quickly from this evil place, or perchance those devils will return and capture you as they have captured me, that they may torture you to death as they are torturing me.  Oh, how did you come?  I know the doors are locked and bolted.  Are you devils in human guise, or hapless prisoners like myself?  Oh, if you are still free, go —­ go ere they can return!  They know that they cannot keep me much longer; they are thirsting for another victim.  Let them not return to find you here; and plunge your own dagger into your heart sooner than be made a slave as I have been!”

These words were not all spoken at once, but were gasped out bit by bit whilst the twin brothers, with wrath and fury in their hearts, cut the tough thongs that bound the wrists and ankles of the boy, and raised his head as they poured down his throat the strong cordial that had been given to them by John, and which was a marvellous restorer of exhausted nature.

They had food, too, in a wallet, and they made the boy eat before they told him aught of their mission; and after the first gasping words of warning and wonder, it seemed as though he obeyed their behests mechanically, most likely taking it all for part and parcel of some strange vision.

But as the sorely-needed nourishment and the powerful restorative did its work upon the boy, he began to understand that this was no vision, and that something utterly inexplicable had befallen him, whether for weal or woe his confused senses would not tell him.  He heard as in a dream the hurried explanations of the boys, drawing his brows together in the effort to understand.  But when they spoke of flight he shook his head, and pointed to the door leading into the house.

“No man may pass out of that,” he said, in low despairing tones.  “How you came in I cannot even guess.  It is guarded by a fierce hound, who will tear in pieces any who approaches save his master.  There is no way of escape for me.  If you are blessed spirits from the world above, fly hence the way you came.  For me, I must ever remain the slave of him who, if not the devil himself, is his sworn servant.”

“We will go, and that quickly,” answered Raymond; “but thou shalt go with us.  We are no spirits, but let us be such to thee for the nonce.  Fear nothing; only trust us and obey us.  If thou wilt do both these things, thou shalt this very night escape for ever from the tyranny of him whom thou hast served so long in such cruel bondage.”