The solitude was unbearable, though we never stopped to consider what it would have been like had we been placed in separate rooms.  At length Felgate stood up, and, seizing a hammer that was used apparently to drive the wedges into the boot, he strode across to the door and began to thunder a rain of blows upon it.  Then he waited, but for all the good it did he might well have saved himself the trouble.  No one came to see who was the cause of the clamour, and silence again reigned supreme.