en overheard, he asked in his old deliberate drawl:

"How in thunder, Mister Parly-voo, did ye git up thet thar combination,
anyhow?"

I heard the Frenchman chuckle, and pinched him as a warning to be
careful. He answered, in his reckless, easy way:

"'T was all simple enough behind the scenes, Messieurs. I but took
some old sacking discovered here, and used it as a robe, standing my
hair well on end; and a flash of powder made the scene most realistic.
The thing indeed worked well. I would I had a picture of Master
Wayland's face to show Toinette!"

This chance mention of her name recalled me to myself. The undecided
wager was yet to be won, and the night was now nearly spent. There
came to me a sudden determination to risk a rush through the darkness
to the Fort gates, rather than chance any further defeat at the hands
of this rash gallant. Yet prudence bade me question somewhat further
before I ventured upon so mad a deed.

"No doubt 't was most happy from your point of view, Monsieur. From
ours, it was less so; and instead of laughing, you might better be
thanking your lucky stars that you did not pay more dearly for such
folly. But what brought you here? Why have you failed to reach the
stockade?"

"_Sacre_!" he muttered carelessly, "but I had a fierce enough run for
it as it was. Why did I not reach the stockade? Because, my friend, I
am no real ghost to be invisible in the night, nor am I a bird to fly.
'T was in the shadow of that big building yonder that I ran into a nest
of those copper-colored fiends, and 't was nip and tuck which of us
won, had I not, by pure good luck, chanced to stumble into this hole,
and so escape them. Perchance they also thought me a ghost, who knows?
But, be that as it may, they were beating the river bank for me in the
flesh, when you came creeping here."

We lay flat on the floor, the three of us, our eyes fastened upon the
faint light that began to stream in through the entrance. I could hear
Burns muttering to himself, as is often the way with men who lead lives
of solitude; and every now and then De Croix would shake silently at
the recollection of what had just occurred. I minded neither of them,
but chiefly planned how best I might outwit De Croix and win the prize
offered by Mademoiselle. The promise of dawning day was in the outer
air, too dim as yet to render our faces visible. Suddenly the slight
draft of air veered, and swept a tiny breath of smoke