Like panthers they stole across the road and down a short, grassy embankment.  At Anguish’s suggestion Lorry wrapped his handkerchief tightly about the heavy end of his cane, preparing in that way to deaden the sound of the blow that was to fall upon the Vienna man’s head.  Then they threw aside their hats, buttoned their coats tightly, and sank down to wait, with bounding hearts and tingling nerves, the arrival of the abductors, mutely praying that they were at the right gate.

IX

THE EXPLOIT OF LORRY AND ANGUISH

During the half hour spent in the grassy ditch or gutter, they spoke not more than half a dozen times and in the faintest of whispers.  They could hear the guard pacing the driveway inside the ponderous gate, but aside from his footsteps no sound was distinguishable.  A sense of oppression came over the two watchers as the minutes grew longer and more deathlike in their stillness.  Each found himself wondering why the leaves did not stir in the trees, why there were no nightbirds, no crickets, no croaking frogs, no sign of life save that steady, clocklike tread inside the wall.  So dark was it that the wall itself was but a deeper shadow against the almost opaque blackness beyond.  No night, it seemed to them, had ever been so dark, so still.  After the oppression came the strange feeling of dread, the result of an enforced contemplation of the affair in which they were to take a hand, ignorant of everything except the general plan.

They knew nothing of the surroundings.  If they failed, there was the danger of being shot by the guards before an explanation could be made.  If they succeeded, it must be through sheer good fortune and not through prowess of mind or muscle.  Once inside the castle, how could they hope to follow the abductors at a safe distance and still avoid the danger of being lost or of running into trusty guards?  The longer they lay there the more hazardous became the part they had so recklessly ventured to play.  In the heart of each there surged a growing desire to abandon the plan, yet neither could bring himself to the point of proposing the retreat from the inspired undertaking.  Both knew the sensible, judicious act would be to alarm the guards and thus avoid all possible chance of a fiasco.  With misgivings and doubts in their hearts the two self-appointed guardians of the Princess lay there upon the grass, afraid to give up the project, yet fearing the outcome.

“The dickens will be to pay, Lorry, if they dispose of this guard on the inside and lock the gate.  Then how are we to follow?” whispered Anguish.

Lorry was thoughtful for a while.  He felt the chill of discouragement in his heart.

“In that case we must lie outside and wait till they come out with the Princess.  Then make a sudden assault and rescue her.  In the darkness we can make them think there are a dozen rescuers,” he whispered at length.  After a while Anguish asked another appalling question, the outgrowth of brain-racking study: