e one has heard you. Why not lay that board on top of the
coal?"

A good idea. I made use of it at once. The window was unlatched, but
there was a heavy wire-screen nailed to the sills outside. There was
no getting out that way. The gods were evidently busy elsewhere.

"Nothing doing," I murmured, a bit discouraged.

"And even if there was, you really could not expect me to risk my neck
and dignity by climbing through a window like that. Let us give up the
idea of windows and seek the cellar-doors, those that give to the
grounds. I declare I shall leave by no other exit."

"It was very kind of you to let me make an ass of myself like that.
Why didn't you tell me beforehand?"

"Perhaps it's the angle of vision again. I can see that we shall never
agree. Seriously, I thought that if you got out that way, you might
find the other exit for me. I am sorry if my laughter annoyed you."

"Not at all, not at all. But wouldn't it be wise to save a little
laughter to make merry with when we get out?"

I stepped out of the bin and relieved her of the candle; and we went on.

"You did look funny," she said.

"Please don't!" I begged.

Soon we came to a bin of cabbages. I peered in philosophically.

"I might find a better head in there than mine," I suggested.

"Now you are trying to be sarcastic," said the girl.

We went on.

"Wait a moment!" she cried. "Here's a bin of nice apples."

Apples! Well, my word, she was a cool one! I picked up one, polished
it on my sleeve, and gave it to her.

"I'm hungry," she said apologetically.

"And plucky, too," I supplemented admiringly. "Most women would be in
a weeping state by this time."

"Perhaps I am waiting till it is all over."

"You had better take off your mask." In fact I felt positive that the
sight of her exquisite face would act like a tonic upon my nerves.

"I am doing very well with it on. I can at least keep my face clean."
She raised the curtain and took a liberal bite of the apple--so
nonchalantly that I was forced to smile.

"Here's a box," said I; "let's sit down while we eat. We are safe
enough. If any one had heard the racket in the coal-bin, the cellar
would have been full of police by this time."

And there we sat, calmly munching the apples, for all the world as if
the iron hand of the law wasn't within a thousand miles of us. It was
all very amusing.

[Illustration: And there we sat, calmly munching the apples.]

"Are--