rcase really creaked beneath the weight of
unusually heavy footsteps, and a singular kind of rustling was heard
along the thin partition that divided the chamber from the landing-place.
Then a ponderous mass, falling against the door of the room, shook it
violently; and the girls, at the very height of terror, looked at each
other without the power of speech.

The door opened. It was Dagobert.

At the sight of him Rose and Blanche joyfully exchanged a kiss, as if
they had just escaped from a great danger.

"What is the matter? why are you afraid?" asked the soldier in surprise.

"Oh, if you only knew!" said Rose, panting as she spoke, for both her own
heart and her sister's beat with violence.

"If you knew what has just happened! We did not recognize your
footsteps--they seemed so heavy--and then that noise behind the
partition!"

"Little frightened doves that you are! I could not run up the stairs like
a boy of fifteen, seeing that I carried my bed upon my back--a straw
mattress that I have just flung down before your door, to sleep there as
usual."

"Bless me! how foolish we must be, sister, not to have thought of that!"
said Rose, looking at Blanche. And their pretty faces, which had together
grown pale, together resumed their natural color.

During this scene the dog, still resting against the window, did not
cease barking a moment.

"What makes Spoil-sport bark in that direction, my children?" said the
soldier.

"We do not know. Two of our windowpanes have just been broken. That is
what first frightened us so much."

Without answering a word Dagobert flew to the window, opened it quickly,
pushed back the shutter, and leaned out.

He saw nothing; it was a dark night. He listened; but heard only the
moaning of the wind.

"Spoil-sport," said he to his dog, pointing to the open window, "leap
out, old fellow, and search!" The faithful animal took one mighty spring
and disappeared by the window, raised only about eight feet above the
ground.

Dagobert, still leaning over, encouraged his dog with voice and gesture:
"Search, old fellow, search! If there is any one there, pin him--your
fangs are strong--and hold him fast till I come."

But Spoil-sport found no one. They heard him go backwards and forwards,
snuffing on every side, and now and then uttering a low cry like a hound
at fault.

"There is no one, my good dog, that's clear, or you would have had him by
the throat ere this." Then, turning to t