A hand which I could see but not feel was laid on mine.

All was darkness in the room, and before me, but the hand guided me two paces forward, then by a sudden pressure bade me stand.

I heard the sound of a curtain being drawn behind me, and the next moment the cover of a rushlight was removed, and a feeble but sufficient light filled the chamber.
I comprehended that the drawing of that curtain over the window had cut off my retreat as effectually as if a door had been closed behind me.
But distrust and suspicion gave way the next moment to the natural embarrassment of the man who finds himself in a false position and knows he can escape from it only by an awkward explanation.
The room in which I found myself was long, narrow, and low in the ceiling; and being hung with some dark stuff which swallowed up the light, terminated funereally at the farther end in the still deeper gloom of an alcove.

Two or three huge chests, one bearing the remnants of a meal, stood against the walls.

The middle of the floor was covered with a strip of coarse matting, on which a small table, a chair and foot-rest, and a couple of stools had place, with some smaller articles which lay scattered round a pair of half-filled saddle-bags.