stol and
confronted by a woman.

CHAPTER XXII

IN THE COUNTESS LAURE'S BED-CHAMBER

That astonishment was so great when the man recognized the woman that
he threw up his hands and stepped backward. As he did so his sodden
cloak, which he had gathered closely around him, opened and fell. The
next instant his hand tore his hat from his head and he stood revealed
in the full light of the candle.

"Marteau!" exclaimed the woman in a surprise and dismay equal to that
of the man she confronted.

Her arm that held the pistol dropped weakly to her side. With the
other hand she drew the peignoir about her, a vivid crimson wave rushed
over her whole body. To surprise a man, a thief, in her room at night,
was one thing; to confront the man she loved in such a guise was
another. Her heart rose in her throat. For a moment she thought she
would have fainted.

"You! You!" she choked out brokenly. "Mon Dieu!"

"Mademoiselle," began the man desperately, his confusion and dismay
growing with every flying moment, "I----"

"What do you here," she went on impetuously, finding voice, "in my
bedroom at night? I thought you----"

"For God's sake hear me. I came to----" and then he stopped lamely and
in agonized embarrassment.

"For what did you come?" she insisted.

"Mademoiselle," he said, throwing his head up, "I cannot tell you. But
when I was stationed here before this was the bedroom of the
Commanding-Officer. I supposed it was so still. I had not the
faintest idea that you--that it was----"

"And what would you do in the bedroom of the Commanding-Officer?" asked
the woman, forgetting for the moment the strangeness of the situation
in her anxiety to solve the problem.

"And that, I repeat, I cannot tell."

"Not even to me, who----" she stopped in turn.

"Yes, yes, go on," urged the young man, stepping nearer to her. "Not
even to you who----"

"Who espoused your cause in the hall this very night, who befriended
you," she went on rather lamely and inadequately having checked herself
in time.

"Oh," said the young officer in great disappointment, "that?"

"Yes."

"You see, the Governor----"

"Did you wish to kill him?"

"Mademoiselle!" he protested. "I swear to you that I would not harm
him for the world but I----"

"Are you in need? He offered you money. I have a few resources."

"For God's sake, mademoiselle," interposed the officer desperately, but
she went resolutely on.

"Whateve