from heaven.

This passed through my mind like a picture; and then I remembered that
it was no more than a step on a paved path.

"If it is they," I whispered, "they will be round the house by now. We
had best look from a dark window."

But my Cousin Tom seized me suddenly by the arm in so fierce a grip that
I winced and all but cried out; and so we stood.

"If you have brought ruin on me--" he began presently in a horrid kind
of whisper; and then he gripped me again; for again, so that no man
could mistake it, came a single step on the paved path; and in my mind I
saw how two men had crossed from lawn to lawn, to get all round the
house, each stepping once upon the stones. They must have entered from
the yard.

In those moments there came to me too a knowledge, of the truth of
which I neither had nor have any doubt at all, that my Cousin Tom was
considering whether he might save himself or no by handing me forthwith
to the searchers. But I suppose he thought not; for presently his hand
relaxed.

"In with you," he whispered; and made a back for me to climb up into the
hiding-hole. I looked at my Cousin Dolly, and she nodded at me ever so
gently; so I set my foot on my Cousin Tom's broad back, and my hands to
the ledge, and raised myself up. It was a pretty wide space within,
sufficient to hold three or four men, though my clothes and a few books
covered most of the floor; but the only light I had was from the candle