You are free." For some seconds after he had spoken into the darkness there was a dead silence in it.

Then there came a kind of muttering and moaning.

We might easily have taken it for the wind or rats if we had not happened to have heard it before.

It was unmistakably the voice of the imprisoned woman, drearily demanding liberty, just as we had heard her demand it.
"Has anybody got a match ?" said Rupert grimly.

"I fancy we have come pretty near the end of this business." I struck a match and held it up.