The same questions were asked and answered each time.

Then some minutes elapsed without any fresh comers, and Francis thought that the number was probably complete.

He lay down on the sand, and with his dagger began to make a hole through the wood, which was old and rotten, and gave him no difficulty in piercing it.
He applied his eye to the orifice, and saw that there were some twelve men seated round a table.

Of those facing him he knew three or four by sight; all were men of good family.

Two of them belonged to the council, but not to the inner Council of Ten.