But the bar once cut, and the passage clear, my father, who, as part of his business, was learned in locks, did not anticipate from Elsie's description any serious trouble. The iron door and patent safety lock of his own prison house, recently arranged for by Mr. Stennis--he remembered the transaction--was, of course, beyond him. But if all was as he had been given to expect, the fastenings of Elsie's door--which communicated with the oven corridor--were of quite another type, and need not detain him long.
It was a little after eleven of the day, as Elsie judged by the light, when Jeremy came back after a somewhat prolonged absence. He brought her a piece of made bread--by which he meant bread bought from one of the vans that passed along the highway, but none of which came up to the Moat
