Next afternoon Templeton assured himself, by a peep from the outside through the closed window, that Smail had settled himself on the sofa to sleep over his heavy midday meal. Eves then quietly opened the door, abstracted the key, and locked the door from the outside. Their simple apparatus was already fitted up in the store cupboard—an old saucepan over a spirit lamp, with two holes in the lid through which they had passed two lengths of glass tubing, the other ends of which projected slightly into the room.  Their next move was to lock all the house doors, except one leading to the garden at the back.  By this time they had found it necessary to tell Mrs. Trenchard what they were about, and she was rather timorously awaiting results.