m. Then I pointed to the
new Perfect Fool, and without another word of explanation went on into
the street.

We walked in silence for some little distance, keeping by the Opera,
and so through to the broad Boulevard Haussmann. Thence he turned,
crossing the busy thoroughfare, and passing through the Rue Joubert,
stopped quite suddenly at last in the mouth of a _cul-de-sac_ which
opened from the narrow street. He had something to say to me, and he
gave it with quick words prompted by a quick and serious wit, for he
had put off the _role_ of the jester at the hotel.

"This is the place," he said; "up here on the third, and there isn't
much time for talk. Just this; you're my man, you carry this box of
metal"--he meant the case of curiosities--"and don't open your mouth,
unless you get the fool in you and want the taste of a six-inch knife.
That's my risk, and I haven't brought you here to share it; so mum's
the word, mum, mum, mum; and keep a hold on your eyes, whatever you see
or whatever you hear. Do I look all right?"

"Perfectly--but just a word; if we are going into some den where we may
have a difficulty in getting out again, wouldn't it be as well to go
armed?"

"Armed!--pish!"--and he looked unutterable contempt, treading the
passage with long strides, and entering a house at the far end of it.

Thither I followed him, still wondering, and passing the concierge
found myself at last on the third floor, before a door of thick oak.
Our first knocking upon this had no effect, but at the second attempt,
and while he was pulling his hat yet more upon his eyes, I heard a
great rolling voice which seemed to echo on the stairway, and so leapt
from flight to flight, almost like the rattle of a cannon-shot with its
many reverberations. For the moment indistinct, I then became aware
that the voice was that of a man singing and walking at the same time,
and seemingly in no hurry to give us admission, for he passed from room
to room bellowing this refrain, and never varying it by so much as a
single word:--

"There was a man of Boston town,
With his pistols three,
With his pistols three, three, three;
And never a skunk in Boston town
That he didn't chaw but me!"

When the noise stopped at last, there was silence, complete and
unbroken, for at least five minutes, during which time Hall stood
motionless, waiting for the door to be opened. After that we heard a
great yell from the same voice, with th