There was nothing to be gained, there was, perhaps, much to be risked, by a movement, a step.  So Max felt, showing thereby that he possessed an instinct of sane prudence which was, in the circumstances, better than bravery.

And presently he discerned a little patch of faint light on the floor, which gradually increased in size until he was able to make out that it was thrown from above, and from the corner above the rubbish heap.

Max kept quite still.  The relief he felt was exquisite.  If once he could have a chance of seeing the man who was in the room with him, and who he could not doubt was the person who had thrown him in, Max felt he should be all right.  In a tussle with another man he knew that he could hold his own, and a sight of the ruffian would enable him to judge whether bribery or force would be the better weapon with him.

In the meantime he watched the light with anxious eyes, determined not to move and risk its extinction until he had been able to examine every corner of the little shop.

And as he looked, his eyes grew round, and his breath came fast.

There was no counter left, no furniture at all behind which a man could hide.  And the room, except for the rubbish in the corner, a small, straggling heap, was absolutely bare.

There was no other creature in it, dead or alive, but himself.

CHAPTER XII.

ESCAPE.

An exclamation, impossible to repress, burst from the lips of Max.

At the same moment he made a spring to the left, which brought him under the spot in the floor above through which the light was streaming.

And he saw through a raised trap-door in the flooring above the shrewish face of old Mrs. Higgs, and the very same candle in the very same tin candlestick that he had seen in use in the adjoining room.

The old woman and the young man stared at each other for a moment in silence.  It seemed to Max that there was genuine surprise on her face as she looked at him.

“Well, I never!” exclaimed she, as she lowered the candle through the hole, and looked, not only at him, but into every corner of the shop.  “Well, I never!  How did you get in there, eh?”

Max was angry and sullen.  How could he doubt that she knew more about it than he did!  On the other hand, he was not in a position to be as rude as he felt inclined to be.

“You know all about that, I expect,” said he, shortly.

“I?  How should I know anything about it?  I only know that I lost sight of you very quickly, and couldn’t make out where you’d got to.”

“Well, you know now,” said Max, shortly, “and perhaps you’ll be kind enough to let me out.”

In spite of himself his voice shook.  As the old woman still hesitated, he measured with his eye the distance between the floor where he stood and the open trap-door above.  It was too far for a spring.  Mrs. Higgs seemed to divine his thoughts, and she laughed grimly.