this gave access to the lower deck; he opened it and
revealed a great empty hold, deftly covered by the tarpaulin and made to
appear fully loaded to any one who looked at the barge from the shore.

"Here is your friend," he cried with huge delight of his own cleverness,
"here is the young servant you are looking for, Mr. Kennedy. And mind,"
he added this in the same stern voice which had exacted the promise,
"and mind, I have your solemn promise."

CHAPTER XXII

A FIGURE IN THE STRAW

A little light filtered down through the crevices and betrayed the
secrets of that strange refuge in all their amazing simplicity. Here was
neither costly furniture nor any adornment whatsoever. A thick carpet of
straw, giving flecks of gold wherever the sunlight struck down upon it,
had been laid to such a depth that a grown man might have concealed
himself therein. A few empty bales stood here and there as though thrown
down at hazard; there were coils of rope and great blocks of timber used
by the stevedores who loaded the barges. But of the common things of
daily life not a trace. No tables, no chairs, neither bed nor blanket
adorn this rude habitation. Let a sergeant of police open his lantern
there and the tousled straw would answer him in mockery. This, for a
truth, had been the case. Little Lois could tell a tale of Cossacks on
the barge, even of rifles fired down into the hold, and of a child's
heart beating so quickly that she thought she must cry out for very pain
of it. But that was before the men were told that the ship belonged to
merry Herr Petermann. They went away at once then--to drink the old
fellow's beer and to laugh with him.

That had been a terrible day and Lois had never forgotten it. Whenever
old Petermann opened the door of his office now, she would start and
tremble as though a Cossack's hand already touched her shoulder.
Sometimes she lay deep down in the straw, afraid to declare herself even
though a friend's voice called her. And so it was upon that morning of
Alban's visit.

Old Petermann had shut the cabin door behind him and discreetly left the
young people together. Seeing little in the deep gloom and his eyes
blinking wherever he turned them, Alban stood almost knee-deep in straw
and cried Lois' name aloud.

"Lois--where are you, Lois--why don't you answer me?"

She crept from the depths at his very feet and shaking the straw from
her pretty hair, she stood upright and put both her hands