the trigger. I
instinctively closed my eyes, and tasted in that fearful moment the full
bitterness of death; but my hour was not yet come. Instead of the flash
and report which I expected would herald me into eternity, a taunting
laugh from Levasseur at the terror he excited rang through the room.

"Come--come," said Dubarle, over whose face a gleam of commiseration,
almost of repentance, had once or twice passed; "you will alarm that
fellow down stairs with your noise. We must, you know, wait till he is
gone, and he appears to be in no hurry. In the meantime let us have a
game of piquet for the first shot at the traitor's carcase."

"Excellent--capital!" shouted Levasseur with savage glee. "A game of
piquet; the stake your life, Waters! A glorious game! and mind you see
fair-play. In the mean time here's your health, and better luck next
time, if you should chance to live to see it." He swallowed a draught of
wine which Dubarle, after helping himself, had poured out for him; and
then approaching me, with the silver cup he had drained in his hand,
said, "Look at the crest! Do you recognize it--fool, idiot that you
are!"

I did so readily enough: it was a portion of the plunder carried off
from Portman-square.

"Come," again interposed Dubarle, "let us have our game."

The play began, and--But I will dwell no longer upon this terrible
passage in my police experience. Frequently even now the incidents of
that night revisit me in dreams, and I awake with a start and cry of
terror. In addition to the mental torture I endured, I was suffering
under an agonizing thirst, caused by the fever of my blood, and the
pressure of the absorbing gag, which still remained in my mouth. It was
wonderful I did not lose my senses. At last the game was over; the Swiss
won, and sprang to his feet with the roar of a wild beast.

At this moment Madame Jaubert entered the apartment somewhat hastily.
"This man below," she said, "is getting insolent. He has taken it into
his tipsy head that you mean to kill your prisoner, and he won't, he
says, be involved in a murder, which would be sure to be found out. I
told him he was talking absurdly; but he is still not satisfied, so you
had better go down and speak to him yourself."

I afterward found, it may be as well to mention here, that Madame
Jaubert and Martin had been induced to assist in entrapping me, in order
that I might be out of the way when a friend of Levasseur's, who had
been comm