anxious, but
still not terrified.

"Very likely--if I won't part with them. Don't be uneasy. I sha'n't
forget your affair."

She pressed his arm gratefully, and drew back till she stood close to
the trusses of straw, ready to seek a hiding-place in case of need.
She was not much too soon. A man hurled himself violently against the
door. The upper part gave and gaped an inch or two; the lower stood
firm, thanks to the block of wood that barred its opening. Even as the
assault was delivered against the door, Dieppe had blown out the
candle. In darkness he and she stood waiting and listening.

"Lend a hand. We shall do it together," cried the voice of M.
Guillaume.

"I 'll be hanged it I move without five thousand francs!"

Dieppe put up both hands and leant with all his weight against the
upper part of the door. He smiled at his prescience when Guillaume
flung himself against it once more. Now there was no yielding, no
opening--not a chink. Guillaume was convinced.

"Curse you, you shall have the money," they heard him say. "Come, hold
the lantern here."

CHAPTER VII

THE FLOOD ON THE RIVER

That Paul de Roustache came to the rendezvous, where he had agreed to
meet the Count, in the company and apparently in the service of M.
Guillaume, who was not at all concerned with the Count but very much
interested in the man who had borrowed his name, afforded tolerably
conclusive evidence that Paul had been undeceived, and that if either
party had been duped in regard to the meeting it was Captain Dieppe.
Never very ready to adopt such a conclusion as this, Dieppe was none
the less forced to it by the pressure of facts. Moreover he did not
perceive any safe, far less any glorious, issue from the situation
either for his companion or for himself. His honour was doubly
involved; the Countess's reputation and the contents of his
breast-pocket alike were in his sole care; and just outside the hut
were two rascals, plainly resolute, no less plainly unscrupulous, the
one threatening the lady, the other with nefarious designs against the
breast-pocket. They had joined hands, and now delivered a united
attack against both of the Captain's treasured trusts. "In point of
fact," he reflected with some chagrin, "I have for this once failed to
control events." He brightened up almost immediately. "Never mind,"
he thought, "it may still be possible to take advantage of them." And
he waited, all on the alert