re of the loft there was a large hole in the floor,
and he commenced working himself by hundredth parts of an inch towards
it; but every time he moved, however slightly, the creaking joist
threatened to betray his presence, and he decided to satisfy himself at
once. One glance might inform him who the men were, and perhaps the
mystery of the stolen gold would be solved.

The steward made a spring towards the aperture, throwing himself
forward upon his hands, so as to look down through the hole. He had
forgotten the ruinous condition of the Hotel de Poisson. His weight and
the force of his movement were too much for the strength of the rotten
wood; a timber gave way, and Mr. C. Augustus Ebenier was precipitated,
head first, through the hole he had made, and struck between the two
men, who sat each on a rock facing the other, with the light on the
ground between them. The lantern was smashed, and the two men uttered a
howl of terror.

If the steward's head had struck one of the rocks it must have split it
open--the head, not the rock! He hit the ground, and, as it was, he was
again stunned, the men making a hasty escape without recognition.

CHAPTER XIII.

"OFT FROM APPARENT ILLS."

Doubtless a person with Mr. C. Augustus Ebenier's pretensions to
gentility should have sent down his card to the individuals engaged in
conference below before he went down himself; but the circumstances did
not permit the exercise of this degree of courtesy. In fact the steward
had no intention forcibly to intrude himself upon the persons below;
only to obtain a glance at them. He was a man of intelligence, and the
arrest of his captain, in whose character he had a becoming interest,
was enough to assure him that something was wrong. He had listened
patiently to the details of the examination, and while he was willing
to admit that the old man had been robbed of his gold, it never entered
his head that Levi was guilty of the crime.

The muffled speech of the two men in the Hotel de Poisson, and the
unseemly hour they had chosen for their conference, suggested to the
steward that they had something to do with this robbery. He had vainly
endeavored to identify their voices, and as a last resort, failing to
obtain any information by other means, he decided to obtain one glance
at them at all hazards. Perhaps it was well for him that the timbers
broke beneath his weight, for the men, not relishing the intrusion,
might have subjecte