ply there was a
pistol in his hand.

"Stand where you are! I would shoot you like a dog rather than let you
escape."

"The devil take you for a fool!" exclaimed Barrington. "I thought I had
a man to deal with!" and he turned his back upon Latour, who went out of
the room, locking the door after him.

Barrington's anger was quickly absorbed in the realization of the utter
hopelessness of his position. Latour had trapped him. When he sent him
the appointment to come to the Chat Rouge, he must have known what he
had told him to-day; he had deliberately said nothing until after Seth's
anxiety had been quieted; and his jailer, Jacques Sabatier, was a party
to the deceit. Latour had it firmly fixed in his mind that he was in
league with Bruslart, and it seemed that nothing short of a miracle
would drive this idea out of his mind. Barrington could conceive no way
in which he could convince him, and the thought that all this while
Jeanne was in peril almost drove him mad. Could he escape? For the first
time since he had entered it he examined his stone cellar carefully. It
was a very grave for security.

When Sabatier visited him next morning, his manner gave Barrington an
idea. Sabatier entered more carefully than he was wont to do, his hand
upon a pistol thrust into his tri-color sash. It was evident he feared
attack. His greeting was friendly, however; he showed a keen interest in
the prisoner, and gave him odds and ends of news which were of little
importance.

"Any message for Citizen Latour?" he asked as he was leaving.

"Tell him he is a fool."

Why should Barrington not attack and overpower his jailer? It might be
useless, perhaps others were watching in the passage without, ready to
rush in at the slightest sound; still, it would be something attempted.
He had succeeded in silencing the man at the Lion d'Or that night, why
should he not succeed again?

The next morning Sabatier came before his time, Barrington was not ready
to take him unawares. Again he asked the same question, and Barrington
gave him a similar answer.

"Tell Latour he is a fool."

"I will. He may end by believing it. I may have news for you to-morrow."

There was meaning in the words, a suggestion that the news might be good
news. Barrington decided to give his jailer a chance of telling it.

Sabatier came at the usual hour.

"Do you bring news?" Barrington asked.

"Citizen Latour remains a fool. I mean it. I do not believe you know