But see that it is the last to-night." And with that he strode across the room, and with a surly "Good-night" to his men, he mounted the stairs once more.
He waited perhaps ten minutes in the chamber above, then he went to the casement, and softly opened the window.

It was as he expected.

With the exception of the coach standing in the middle of the yard, and just discernible by the glow of the smouldering fire they had built there but allowed to burn low, the place was untenanted.

Believing him to have retired for the night, the men were back again in the more congenial atmosphere of the hostelry, drinking themselves no doubt into a stupor with that last can of drugged wine.

He sat down to quietly mature his plans, and to think out every detail of what he was about to do.