Part 11 (1/2)

Before long we heard words of coleefully related afterward She had lost her way

Yes, a little glass of absinthe--only one She was not used to it And she had theand hed No doubt it was the absinthe

The old wo now and then Wouldn't one of them show her the way? No And was it down the avenue? Yes With this she set off unsteadily along the road to the left They called out that it was the wrong way, and then, laughing, disle of the wall, Alphonse slipped aside into the forest, got rid of gown and basket, and h the wood, took up his station on the side of the ht of the guards Here he waited until a few minutes later he was joined by the captain

Meanwhile I stood in the ith Merton I think he enjoyed it I did not A first attelary is not in all its aspects heroic, and I et, chilled, and anxious

”First actor on,” murmured Merton ”Should like to have seen that interview Can't be actor and audience both”

I hazily reflected that for myself I was both, and that the actor had just then a sharp fit of stage-scare I let him run on unanswered, while the rain poured down my back

At last he said: ”I think Alphonse has had tih”

”Hardly,” said I I did not want to talk I was longing to do souard went by twenty feet away, the smoke of his pipe bloard us

”I never liked pipe-s on the picket-line,” said Merton ”You can sht at any distance Remind me to tell you a story about it Heavens!” he cried, as a flash of lightning for an instant set everything in noon-day clearness, ”I hope we shall not have much of that Keep down, Greville Ever steal apples? Strike that repeater” I did so ”It's a good deal like waiting for the word to charge I renition in case we did not come out alive Just after that I fell ill”

”Hush!+” I said ”There he is again”

”All right; give him a moment,” said Merton, ”and now you have a full half-hour Coarden wall He gave me the aid of his bent knee and then his shoulder, and I was at once lying flat on the garden wall My repeater rang 10:15, and then, as I lay, I heard voices This time there were two arettes One of theht have proved reeable The other said Jean had a pleasanter station in the house This was not very reassuring news, but I was in for it and wildly eager to be through with a perilous adventure

As they disappeared, I dropped fro crash, rolling over on a pile of flower-pots There was such a clatter as on any quiet night must have been surely heard

For a nals of alar the wall to the door of the conservatory It was not locked Pausing on the step outside for athem to a belt I wore for this purpose Then I went in I found the door of the house ajar, and entering, knew that I was in the drawing-rooh the furniture, and, aided by a flash of lightning, found my way into the hall Before me, to left, across the hall, was a small room The door was open I smelled very vile pipe-smoke and heard footfalls overhead, but no sound of voices I became at once hopeful that I should have to deal with but one man I opened cautiously ain the little rooiven a half-hour My repeater at last struck 10:45

Meanwhile the clouds broke in places, and there were now gleausts of wind-driven rain

I rose and shut to a crack the door of the rooht, I heard of a sudden a wild shriek of ”Murder!

Then came a pistol-shot, then another, and in a moment a third more remote, and, far away, the cries of uards would make for the direction of the sound we had felt sure, but ould happen in regard to the house guard was left to chance At all events, he would be isolated for a time To my relief, the ruse answered I shut thenoiselessly as I hearddown the stairway

He opened the hall door in haste and was diate I rushed into the hall, bolted the hall door, and ran up-stairs The old nurse had been prepared for

”Quick,” I said ”You expected ood Yankee wits about her, and in ain the ashes Thrusting the package of paper within my shi+rt-bosom, I ran down-stairs, and as she came after, I cried that I had locked the hall door, and to unlock it when I was gone ”Be quick,” I added, ”and lock the conservatory door behindto put onthe guard who must have joined his fellows outside

XIII

I had an awful five otten that For a arden chair I dragged it to the wall and so, lay still for asuspicious, they had returned, for two of thefast, and if they had been less busy over the pistol-shots and had ht

I waited, breathing hard A few minutes passed They seeh the torrents of rainto his post He went in, and at once I turned over, dropped, and in a moment was deep in the wood I was drenched and as tired of a sudden as if I had walked all day I suppose it was due to the intense anxiety and excite e It was now after eleven, and I sat down in the wood and rested for a while I knew Paris well I had been there two years I walked on for nearly an hour, and then within one of the barriers, reht a cab and drove to the Rue Rivoli, where I left theWe kept there a night-watche must have been amazed atfire kindled, locked the door, found a sar, sat down, feeling a delightful sense of joy and security Next I turned to examine the value of my prize The ashes fell about as I laid the packet on the table

I was by degrees becoe of garht to an to consider, as others have done, the ethical aspects of the matter A woman had stolen the documents now on the table To have returned thee of ith two great nations One of theations, was alentleman was ever known to arde had hastily tied the papers together and turned to consider the over the documents, I saw revealed the secrets ofthey were of inestiinal letters; others were copies of letters fro them was a draft of a letter of Drouyn de Lhuys, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and on this and on others were sharp co reasons for acknowledging the Confederacy without delay There were even hints at intervention by the European powers as desirable I sat aain within e before the fire to rest, for sleep was not forof what had becoood fortune of lary

XIV

At seven in the ht he appeared I need not dwell upon his surprise as he listened to the full relation of my encounter with Le Moyne, about which and our subsequent difficulty he already knew so When I quietly told hi the ribbon, laid the dusty package on the table, he becarave He very evidently did not approve of ourthe papers, but whatever heof e had done was lost in astonishment as he saw before hi dreading Here was the hatching of an international conspiracy As he sat, his kindly face grew stern while I translated to him the emperor's comments