Then the dark fell, and silence.
Thank God it was a black night.

The moon was well on its last quarter and would not rise till late.

My thirst was too great to allow me to tarry, so about nine o'clock, so far as I could judge, I started to descend.

It wasn't easy, and half-way down I heard the back door of the house open, and saw the gleam of a lantern against the mill wall.
For some agonizing minutes I hung by the ivy and prayed that whoever it was would not come round by the dovecot.

Then the light disappeared, and I dropped as softly as I could on to the hard soil of the yard.
I crawled on my belly in the lee of a stone dyke till I reached the fringe of trees which surrounded the house.