They entered the closet and he pulled the door to close it upon them. It resisted; he pulled harder; a rusted hinge gave way, and the door dropped upon its front corner, so that he had partly to lift it to get it to. Just as he succeeded, Joan’s name on the voice of her fear echoed awfully through the mouldy silences of the house. In the darkness of the closet, where there was just room for two to stand, she clung like a child to Cosmo, trembling in his arms like one in a fit of the ague. It is mournful to think what a fear many men are to the women of their house. The woman-fear in the world is one of its most pitiful outcries after a saviour. Hesitating steps were heard below. They went from one to another of the rooms, then began to ascend the stair. “Now, Joan,” said Cosmo, holding her to him, “whatever you do, keep quiet. Don’t utter a sound. Please God, I will take care of you.” She pressed his shoulder, but did not speak. The steps entered the room. Both Cosmo and Joan seemed to feel the eyes that looked all about it. Then the steps came towards the closet. Now was the decisive moment! Cosmo was on the point of bursting out, with the cry of a wild animal, when something checked him, and suddenly he made up his mind to keep still to the very last. He put a hand on the lock, and pressed the door down against the floor. In the faint light that came through the crack at the top of it, he could see the dark terror of Joan’s eyes fixed on his face. A hand laid hold of the lock, and pulled, and pulled, but in vain. Probably then Mergwain saw that the door was fallen from its hinge. He turned the key, and the door had not altered its position too far for his locking them in. Then they heard him go down the stair, and leave the house. “He’s not gone far!” said Cosmo. “He will have this closet open presently. You heard him lock it! We must get out of it at once! Please, let me go, Joan, dear! I must get the door open.” She drew back from him as far as the space would allow. He put his shoulder to the door, and sent it into the middle of the room with a great crash, then ran and lifted it. “Come, Joan! Quick!” he cried. “Help me to set it up again.” The moment something was to be done, Joan’s heart returned to her. In an instant they had the door jammed into its place, with the bolt in the catch as Mergwain had left it. “Now,” said Cosmo, “we must get down the stair, and hide somewhere below, till he passes, and comes up here again.”