. Wait a moment: I
will bring something to make a pillow, and you can sleep like a
top.' He went out, and returned with an old coat, which he folded
for me, and which, after covering it with my handkerchief, made a
tolerable resting-place for my head. My bed was a hard bench.

"'Now,' said my protector in a tone of much satisfaction--'now, you
will be well. _Voila un bon gite_! Both these other doors are
fastened, and this one you can lock after me. Very early I will come
and take you part of the way back, and by daylight you can easily
find the rest yourself. _Bonne nuit, mademoiselle: dormez bien_.' He
went to the door, and taking the key from the outside put it inside.
It would not turn. The lock had been made to work with two keys, and
the other was absent.

"'I will tell you what I will do,' said my friend, not in the least
discomfited: 'I will lock the door and take the key with me. I must
go up the road about two miles on my beat, but you can feel
quite safe: no one can get in while I am gone. There is another
watchman on the road: he might come while I am away, and--and raise
a row. It is best to lock you up.' He nodded his head with great
complacency at his good management, and prepared to leave me. I
could suggest nothing better. I was at the end of my resources, and
had to accept my fate. It would be interesting to know what the
Pompadour or Queen Elizabeth would have done under the
circumstances, wouldn't it?

"It was with no pleasant feeling that I saw the door shut, heard the
key turned, then withdrawn: the lantern glimmered for a moment
through the window, and I was left in the darkness a prisoner.
Thoroughly a prisoner, for none of the three doors had keys on my
side, and the windows, with their tiny panes of ground glass, were
high above the floor. Then, too, the old man had insisted on
speaking in a whisper, and walked about on tiptoe. Who were those
persons he evidently feared to waken? Persons near by, of course.
Probably they carried the missing keys and could enter at any
moment. And the other watchman? What if he should come, and, this
being the room allotted to himself and companion, refuse to be
barred out? Those other unknowns would be aroused by his knocking,
and rush in to seek an explanation. If I were found there, should I
be taken before the