look, as if he hesitated to make between them an important and difficult
choice.

From time to time he listened at the great door of the shed, which opened
on the court-yard of the inn. At length this door turned on its hinges,
and Goliath appeared, his clothes dripping with water.

"Well! is it done?" said the Prophet.

"Not without trouble. Luckily, the night is dark, it blows hard, and it
pours with rain."

"Then there is no suspicion?"

"None, master. Your information was good. The door of the cellar opens on
the fields, just under the window of the lasses. When you whistled to let
me know it was time, I crept out with a stool I had provided; I put it up
against the wall, and mounted upon it; with my six feet, that made nine,
and I could lean my elbows on the window-ledge; I took the shutter in one
hand, and the haft of my knife in the other, and, whilst I broke two of
the panes, I pushed the shutter with all my might."

"And they thought it was the wind?"

"Yes, they thought it was the wind. You see, the 'brute' is not such a
brute, after all. That done, I crept back into my cellar, carrying my
stool with me. In a little time, I heard the voice of the old man; it was
well I had made haste."

"Yes, when I whistled to you, he had just entered the supper-room. I
thought he would have been longer."

"That man's not built to remain long at supper," said the giant,
contemptuously. "Some moments after the panes had been broken, the old
man opened the window, and called his dog, saying: 'Jump out!'--I went
and hid myself at the further end of the cellar, or that infernal dog
would have scented me through the door."

"The dog is now shut up in the stable with the old man's horse."

"Go on!"

"When I heard them close shutter and window, I came out of my cellar,
replaced my stool, and again mounted upon it. Unfastening the shutter, I
opened it without noise, but the two broken panes were stopped up with
the skirts of a pelisse. I heard talking, but I could see nothing; so I
moved the pelisse a little, and then I could see the two lasses in bed
opposite to me, and the old man sitting down with his back to where I
stood."

"But the knapsack--the knapsack?--That is the most important."

"The knapsack was near the window, on a table, by the side of a lamp; I
could have reached it by stretching out my arm."

"What did you hear said?"

"As you told me to think only of the knapsack, I can only remember what
conc