then a sound of hurrying footsteps rang on the pavement out in the
street, immediately followed by three knocks on the street door, waking
the echoes of the house. The reverberating blows told, as plainly as
a cry for help that here was a man flying for his life. The house dog
barked furiously. A thrill of excitement ran through Helene and Gustave
and the General and his wife; but neither Abel, with the night-cap
strings just tied under his chin, nor Moina awoke.

"The fellow is in a hurry!" exclaimed the General. He put the little
girl down on the chair, and hastened out of the room, heedless of his
wife's entreating cry, "Dear, do not go down--"

He stepped into his own room for a pair of pistols, lighted a dark
lantern, sprang at lightning speed down the staircase, and in another
minute reached the house door, his oldest boy fearlessly following.

"Who is there?" demanded he.

"Let me in," panted a breathless voice.

"Are you a friend?"

"Yes, friend."

"Are you alone?"

"Yes! But let me in; _they_ are after me!"

The General had scarcely set the door ajar before a man slipped into the
porch with the uncanny swiftness of a shadow. Before the master of
the house could prevent him, the intruder had closed the door with a
well-directed kick, and set his back against it resolutely, as if he
were determined that it should not be opened again. In a moment the
General had his lantern and pistol at a level with the stranger's
breast, and beheld a man of medium height in a fur-lined pelisse. It
was an old man's garment, both too large and too long for its present
wearer. Chance or caution had slouched the man's hat over his eyes.

"You can lower your pistol, sir," said this person. "I do not claim
to stay in your house against your will; but if I leave it, death is
waiting for me at the barrier. And what a death! You would be answerable
to God for it! I ask for your hospitality for two hours. And bear this
in mind, sir, that, suppliant as I am, I have a right to command with
the despotism of necessity. I want the Arab's hospitality. Either I
and my secret must be inviolable, or open the door and I will go to my
death. I want secrecy, a safe hiding-place, and water. Oh! water!" he
cried again, with a rattle in his throat.

"Who are you?" demanded the General, taken aback by the stranger's
feverish volubility.

"Ah! who am I? Good, open the door, and I will put a distance between
us," retorted the other, and the