, an alley, some
hiding-place might present itself. Escape was not probable, but there
was a chance, that bare chance which keeps the courage steady.

[Illustration: Escape was not probable, but there was a chance.]

As he rushed into the Rue Charonne, the yelling chorus behind him, a new
difficulty faced him. Just before him was the Chat Rouge, the one place
in all Paris that must not attract the attention of the mob to-night. An
archway was beside him and he turned into it.

"The American! The American!"

The bloodhounds were in the street. Would they miss this archway? It was
unlikely.

"Quick!" said a voice in his ear as he was dragged back against the
wall. "There is straw below. Jump!"

The crowd was rushing past the archway, but some stopped to examine it
as Barrington jumped down, falling on his hands and knees onto a bed of
straw.

"The American!"

"This way. He must have gone this way!"

The babel of voices was loud for a moment, then something silenced it,
and there was the swift sound of a bolt shot home carefully.

CHAPTER XVII

SETH IS CAUTIOUS

It was doubtful whether any man, woman or child, not even excepting
Richard Barrington himself, had any clear idea of Seth's character, or
the exact standpoint from which he viewed life and his fellows. On the
Virginian estate he had always led an isolated kind of existence,
happier apparently in his own company than any other. His devotion to
his mistress and her boy was known, and passed for one of his
peculiarities, had occasionally indeed been cast in his teeth as a
selfish device for winning favor. Barrington, as a boy, had made use of
him, as a man he had brought him to France knowing that he was to be
trusted, yet hardly realizing that Seth's trustworthiness was rooted in
love, such a love as men do not often receive. Since they had landed in
France, and danger had been as their very shadows, Richard had caught
glimpses of this love, but had understood it rather in terms of
comradeship than in any deeper sense, and had perhaps misinterpreted
Seth's keen desire to return forthwith to Virginia. Seth, in short, was
seldom able to express himself adequately, emotion scarcely ever sounded
in his voice, and the expression of his face was a fixed and
unchangeable one, somewhat dour and ill-tempered in aspect and
reflecting nothing of the man within.

That his master had gone into imminent danger by keeping the
appointment at the Chat Rouge