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You stoop down and shuffle in, awkwardly - and in consideration of how much weight and bulk you have on your back, painfully - closing the distance, all the while with the shovel between you and the chest. To tell it true, you are not sure why you are bothering - you have already concluded that it would make no sense for this to be a man-snare, and even if you were dead wrong, then how much protection would a shovel's distance afford you? Not 'none' certainly, but your mind churns with all sorts of nasty Weavings that might be able to hurt you with the distance remaining. Undaunted - or at least, trying to tell yourself that you are undaunted - you get in close, and tap the lock-plate again, listening carefully for anything happening inside. The sound of metal on metal contact is somewhere between a thud and a clink ... but beyond that, there is nothing to hear. You try the top of the chest this time, patting it with the flat of the shovel's head, each impact with a little more force than the last - but all still very restrained, very cautious. Just as the chest is still very quiet. Taking a deep breath, you bring the left side of your ear to bear on the lock-plate, doing your best to line up your ear with the keyhole. And you strain to listen; but all you can hear is your breathing, quick and silently raspy. There aren't even any incidental noises that you can pick up elsewhere in the house, none of that gurgling just at the edge of audibility - though at this point, you cannot recall if you could hear that in this room.
With your head close in, you move the shovel back above the top of the chest, and you resume your tapping. If such a thing is possible, you are straining harder than you were before - but the only noises that you can hear now are the noises that you are making. Thinking that perhaps you are drowning out what you are trying to hear, you quickly move the shovel clear, then you stay stock still. Yet there is still nothing to hear. You try the same stratagem on the lock-plate, only to reap the same harvest. If there is something inside of the chest, then it is not making noise, and does not respond to outside agitation. You would make a stake with your life on that ... you just hope you aren't.
Ah, damn it all. There is no indication that this is a man-snare, so why are you on tender-hooks?
Well ... the strickening striker for a start, and while there isn't any solid, tangible and reliable indication that this is a man-snare, there is no indication that it is anything else - or for that matter, there is nothing definitive <span class="mu-i">against</span> it being a man-snare either, except your read on the situation. Do you trust that? Moreover, where do you go from here?
