Here a lamp was left dimly burning all night, and this lamp showed him
another cloth-covered door at the top of the first flight of stairs.
Black Milsom tried this door, and found it also unfastened.
This door, which Black Milsom opened, communicated with the little
passage that had been made across the room usually tenanted by Captain
Copplestone. Within this room there was a still smaller chamber--little
more, indeed, than a spacious closet--in which slept the faithful old
servant, Solomon Grundy.
Both the doors were open, and Black Milsom heard the heavy breathing of
the old man--the breathing of a sound sleeper.
Beyond the short passage was the door opening into the sitting-room
used by the young heiress of Raynham.
Black Milsom had only to push it open. The intruder crept softly across
the room, drew aside a curtain, and opened the massive oak door which
divided the sitting-room from the bed-room.
Mr. Milsom had taken care to make himself familiar with the smallest
details of the castle household, and he had even heard of Mrs. Morden's
habit of sleeping within closely drawn curtains, from his general
informant, James Harwood, the groom, who had received his information
from one of the housemaids, in that temple of gossip--the servants'
hall.
Gertrude Eversleigh slept in a white-curtained cot, by the side of Mrs.
Morden's bed.
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