ve dismissed me, and I must have obeyed or been compelled,
for he is master here, and has men enough to enforce what he desires."

And now she would have thanked him for having saved her, but he cut her
short almost roughly.

"You owe me no thanks," he said. "I have but done for you what my
manhood must have bidden me do for any woman similarly situated. For
to-night I have saved you, Citoyenne. I shall make an effort to smuggle
you and your mother out of Boisvert before morning, but after that you
must help yourselves."

"You will do this?" she cried, her eyes glistening.

"I will attempt it."

"By what means, Monsieur Caron?"

"I do not yet know. I must consider. In the meantime you had best return
to your coach. Later to-night I shall have you and your mother brought
to me, and I will endeavour to so arrange matters that you shall not
again return to your carriage.

"Not return to it?" she exclaimed. "But are we then to leave it here?"

"I am afraid there is no help for that."

"But, Monsieur, you do not know; there is a treasure in that carriage.
All that we have is packed in it, and if we go without it we go
destitute."

"Better, perhaps, to go destitute than not to go at all, Mademoiselle. I
am afraid there is no choice for you."

His manner was a trifle impatient. It irritated him that in such a
moment she should give so much thought to her valuables. But in reality
she was thinking of them inasmuch as they concerned her mother, who was
below, and her father and brother who awaited them in Prussia, whither
they had separately emigrated. The impatience in his tone stung her into
a feeling of resentment, that for the moment seemed to blot out the much
that she owed him. A reproachful word was trembling on her lips, when
suddenly he put out his hand.

"Hist!" he whispered, the concentrated look of one who listens stamped
upon his face. His sharp ears had detected some sound which--perhaps
through her preoccupation--she had not noticed. He stepped quickly to
the Captain's side, and taking up the lamp by its chain, he leapt into
the air like a clown, and came down on his heels with a thud that shook
the chamber. Simultaneously he dropped the lamp with a clatter, and sent
a shout re-echoing through the house.

The girl stared at him with parted lips and the least look of fear in
her eyes. Was he gone clean mad of a sudden?

But now the sound which had warned him of someone's approach reached
her ears