This possibility, new to some but recognised from the first by
others, fluttered the breasts of such as were not quite impervious
to a sense of their own presumption, and as they stood in a close
group, swaying from side to side in a vain endeavour to see their
way through the gloom before them, the whimper of a child and the
muttered ejaculations of the men testified that the general
feeling was one of discontent which might very easily end in an
outburst of vociferous expression.

But the demon of curiosity holds fast and as soon as their eyes
had become sufficiently used to the darkness to notice the faint
line of light marking the sill of a door directly in front of
them, they all plunged forward in spite of the fear I have
mentioned.

The woman of the harsh voice and self-satisfied demeanour, who had
started them upon this adventure, was still ahead; but even she
quailed when, upon laying her hand upon the panel of the door she
was the first to reach, she felt it to be cold and knew it to be
made not of wood but of iron. How great must be the treasure or
terrible the secret to make necessary such extraordinary
precautions! Was it for her to push open this door, and so come
upon discoveries which--

But here her doubts were cut short by finding herself face to face
with a heavy curtain instead of a yielding door. The pressure of
the crowd behind had precipitated her past the latter into a small
vestibule which acted as an ante-chamber to the very room they
were in search of.