oor, and in swept the Amazons, letting go
another kettleful, this time over my upper half, my lower half being
squeezed down into the tub.

When the girls had emptied the contents of this last kettle over the
edge, and caught sight of my face,--they evidently thought I was still
behind the head-board,--both gave one prolonged shriek that literally
roused the house. The brawnier of the two,--a magnificent creature, with
her corsets outside of her dress,--after holding her sides with laughter
until I thought she would suffocate, sank upon the sea-chest, from which
her companion rescued her just as Mme. Flamand and Baeader opened the door.
All this time my chin was resting on the jagged rim of the tub, and my
teeth were chattering.

"Baeader, where in thunder have you been? Drag that chest against that door
quick, and come in. Is this what you call a bath?"

"Monsieur, if you will pardon. I arouse myself at ze daylight; I rely upon
Mme. Flamand that ze Englishman who is dead had left one behind; I search
everywhere. Zen I make inquiry of ze mother of ze two demoiselles who have
just gone. She was much insulted; she make ze bad face. She say with much
indignation: 'Monsieur, since I was a baby ze water has not touched my
body.' At ze supreme moment, when all hope was gone, I discover near ze
house of ze same madame this grand arrangement. Immediately I am on fire,
and say to myself, 'Baeader, all is not lost. Even if zare was still ze
bath of ze Englishman, it would not compare.' In ze quickness of an eye I
bring a saw, and ze demoiselles are on zare knees making ze arrangement,
one part big, one small. I say to myself, 'Baeader, monsieur is an artist,
and of enthusiasm, and will appreciate zis utensile agreable of ze
fisherman.' If monsieur will consider, it is, of course, not ze grand bain
of Paris, but it is simple, and quite of ze people."

* * * * *

Some two months later, the governor and I happened to be strolling through
the flower-market of the Madeleine. He had been selecting plants for the
windows of his apartment, and needed a reliable man to arrange them in
suitable boxes.

"That fellow Baeader lives down here somewhere; perhaps he might know of
some one," he said, consulting his notebook. "Yes; No. 21 Rue Chambord.
Let us look him up."

In five minutes we stood before a small, two-story house, with its door
and wide basement-window protected by an awning. Beneath this, upo