After a while the door swung open and he went in, turning his head to see that she was coming after. The floor was thick with dust; the only furniture in the room into which he invited her was an old backless chair. On one of the walls was a yellow almanac for the year 1913, and probably the house had not been occupied since then. “You’ll stay here and keep quiet. There will be light in a few hours. If you want anything, ask Mrs. Rooks--she will be here presently.” He went out, but did not lock the door; she found afterwards that it was lacking in this appendage. Followed half an hour’s wait, and then she heard footsteps in the hall, heard another door open, and a mutter of conversation. Something dropped with a thud on the passage, and for a second Lois’ heart came into her mouth. But it seemed that Mrs. Rooks, who, she guessed, was the sallow-faced woman, had come heavily laden, for the sound of her complaining reached the girl. Evidently she had brought the provisions necessary for the party--the weight of them was not very promising, and Tappatt was seemingly prepared for a long stay. “Nearly broke my back,” she grumbled. “Why couldn’t she carry it, doctor?” Lois crept nearer to the door and listened, hoping to hear something that would confirm her theory that she was being hidden because the doctor expected a return visit from Michael Dorn. “Get a chair from the other room,” she heard him growl. “What are you making all this fuss about? It is no worse for you than for me. This isn’t the first time you’ve sat up all night, is it?” “I don’t see why you should take all this trouble,” grumbled the woman. “He’ll not come back again, and, if he did, what’s to stop him coming into the wood?” “He will come back--you need have no doubt about that. I know the man. And you can make your mind easy about his finding them. He isn’t likely to search every copse in the neighbourhood.” A few minutes later the front door slammed as he went out, and she heard the woman grumbling to herself. She was sitting within a few feet of the door, and could hear every sound and move in the bare room. To open the window might be possible, but to do so without her hearing was a hopeless impossibility. Soon after daybreak Mrs. Rooks took her into the kitchen, and, passing the room which held the second prisoner, Lois saw that there was a key in that door. If the conditions were the same in the other prison room it was as impossible for the unknown woman to escape. Who was she, she wondered? Some poor creature, perhaps, who had been entrusted by her friends to the tender mercy of Dr. Tappatt. Her heart ached for the woman, and in her pity she forgot her own danger and discomfort.