Everyone was fast asleep in Moonfleet and there was no light in any window; only when I came opposite the Why Not?
I saw from the red glow behind the curtains that the bottom room was lit up, so Elzevir was not yet gone to bed.

It was strange, for the Why Not?
had been shut up early for many a long night past, and I crossed over cautiously to see if I could make out what was going forward.

But that was not to be done, for the panes were thickly steamed over; and this surprised me more as showing that there was a good company inside.
Moreover, as I stood and listened I could hear a mutter of deep voices inside, not as of roisterers, but of sober men talking low.
Eagerness would not let me wait long, and I was off across the meadows towards the church, though not without sad misgivings as soon as the last house was left well behind me.

At the churchyard wall my courage had waned somewhat: it seemed a shameless thing to come to rifle Blackbeard's treasure just in the very place and hour that Blackbeard loved; and as I passed the turnstile I half-expected that a tall figure, hairy and evil-eyed, would spring out from the shadow on the north side of the church.

But nothing stirred, and the frosty grass sounded crisp under my feet as I made across the churchyard, stepping over the graves and keeping always out of the shadows, towards the black clump of yew-trees on the far side.
When I got round the yews, there was the tomb standing out white against them, and at the foot of the tomb was the hole like a patch of black velvet spread upon the ground, it was so dark.