The boy desisted and finished in silence the meal which might be either breakfast, dinner or supper for all he knew.

Then the soldier took the tin dishes, withdrew with his comrade, and the door was locked again.
Ned was left to silence and solitude.

But he felt that he must now move about, have action of some kind.

He threw himself against the door in an effort to shake it, but it did not move a jot.

Then he remembered that he had seen cell doors in a row, and that other prisoners might be on either side of him.