When it reached the upper extremities of the four posts, it reached the ceiling, too.
Neither hole nor screw could be seen; the bed became in appearance an ordinary bed again--the canopy an ordinary canopy--even to the most suspicious eyes.
Now, for the first time, I was able to move--to rise from my knees--to dress myself in my upper clothing--and to consider of how I should escape.

If I betrayed by the smallest noise that the attempt to suffocate me had failed, I was certain to be murdered.

Had I made any noise already?
I listened intently, looking towards the door.
No! no footsteps in the passage outside--no sound of a tread, light or heavy, in the room above--absolute silence everywhere.

Besides locking and bolting my door, I had moved an old wooden chest against it, which I had found under the bed.

To remove this chest (my blood ran cold as I thought of what its contents _might_ be!) without making some disturbance was impossible; and, moreover, to think of escaping through the house, now barred up for the night, was sheer insanity.