"We have no way of escape, so they may take what time they will," said Crosby, and then, as the candle shed a dim light in the room, he turned to Barbara. "How can I thank you?--yet I would you were not here. My coming to Aylingford has brought you grievous trouble." "There was trouble before you came; it does not seem to me much greater now," she answered. "Spoken like a philosopher," said Martin, laying his sword on the table beside the fiddle and the bow. "And, truly, Martin, you fight like a soldier," said Barbara. "The occasion makes the man, mistress. For the moment I was a soldier, and had forgotten the fiddle bow. But speak low; they will be upon the landing in a moment, and I would not have them know that you are here. Did anyone see you come to the ruins?" "I think not." "Good! There are more ways than one of cheating an enemy." "But we are caught here, Martin--here in the tower." And she put a hand upon the arm of this mad dreamer, as though she would rouse him to action, and cast an appealing glance at Crosby to add his efforts to hers. "I know, I know. We are locked in my tower. There is no place like it in Aylingford Abbey." And Martin sat down on a low stool by the open hearth and began pushing back the sticks and rubbish which lay there into a heap, as if it were his intention to light a fire. "Come, Master Fairley, rise once more to the occasion," said Crosby. "I'm sitting down to it this time," was the answer. "Riding made my knees sore, and fighting has put an ache in my back." "They have not gained the landing yet," urged Crosby. "Is there not a way to the roof? With a rope we might at least get Mistress Lanison to the ground in safety." "Yes, Martin, possibly we might all get down from the roof without being seen," said Barbara. "But every way of escape from the Abbey is watched to-night," she went on, turning to Crosby. "Lord Rosmore said so." "Then we gain little by climbing from the roof if we could do so, which we cannot," said Fairley. "First, I have no rope; secondly--ah! that will do for a second reason. They are upon the landing." As he spoke the door at the head of the stairs crashed open, and there was a rush of feet without. "Can you hide Mistress Lanison?" whispered Crosby to Martin, glancing round the room. "They are not likely to search if you and I open the door to them." Barbara started back, perhaps expecting the room door to burst in suddenly, perhaps to protest that she intended to share the danger, whatever it might be. Her ankle was suddenly seized and held tightly. "Have a care, mistress," said Martin in a low tone, and, looking down at him, Barbara saw that where the hearth-stone had been there was now a hole. "There is one way that is not watched to-night, I warrant--this way." He rose quickly from the stool and touched Crosby's arm. "Go first. There are steps. Take my sword as well as your own. Then you, mistress. I come last to shut this up again."