It seemed to me that I had only two choices—either to get out through the main gate, or to survive long enough in here for Chico to summon the cavalry to come and save me.

But there was also the problem of ‘the boys’.

I thought that I could remain ahead of Valance and Asquith among the dark castle ruins, although the flashlights certainly didn’t help my cause, but against four I’d have absolutely no chance.

Chico had said that he had seen ‘the boys’ drive away, but where to?

It had been no more than twenty to twenty-five minutes between them leaving and Valance calling them to return. Had they been driving away all that time or had they stopped only a mile or so down the road? At best, I had only twenty minutes or so before they would be back, and then this deadly game of hide-and-seek would quickly reach a finale—and I would be the loser.

But my immediate prime concern was to keep out of the flashlight beams.

I decided against going up.

There were two staircases to the upper levels—the stone spiral in the south-east corner tower of the keep, and a modern straight wooden structure that now stood on the site of the original external entrance staircase on the east side.

Two staircases and two assailants didn’t seem like a very good bet to me. They would simply need to take one stairway each and move up together, leaving me no way out, and those parts of the upper levels that hadn’t already collapsed were very small, with precious little space to hide.

I felt I could easily overpower Valance, if only I knew which one was him, but I had no wish to rush at one of the flashlights only to find another .455 slug coming rapidly in the opposite direction.

The two of them still seemed to be moving around outside the keep. I could tell by the light from their flashlights that shone through the opening in the walls, which had once held leaded-glass windows.

Originally, for added security, there had been no entrances to the keep on the ground floor, access only being into the first floor via the external staircase, but, over the years, several holes had been punched through the ten-feet-thick walls. It was only a matter of time before Asquith and Valance came through them, and there was nowhere in here for me to hide either.

I needed to get out of the keep, and fast.

Down the centre there was a dividing wall, and I went through an opening in this wall from the old kitchens to what had once been a large vaulted cellar.