opinion it was cowardly to let
oneself be frightened by a century-old legend. _He_ wouldn't let that
bother him if _he_ had influence enough in the family to win the
daughter and induce the mother to give a ball in the haunted hall.
With this last hit he hoped to arouse the young husband's ire. But the
latter merely shrugged his shoulders and turned away with a smile of
contempt.

Lieutenant Wolff fired up at this, and demanded to know whether the
other intended to call his, the lieutenant's, courage into question by
his behavior.

"Not in the slightest, when it is a matter of obtaining a loan, or of
mutilating an adversary with a trick at fencing," answered the
bridegroom angrily, taking care, however, that neither the bride nor
any of the other ladies should hear his words. Then he continued in a
whisper: "But I don't believe you'd have the courage to remain here
alone and in darkness, before this closed door, for a single hour. If
you wish to challenge me for this doubt, I am at your disposal as soon
as you have proven me in the wrong. But I choose the weapons."

"They must be chosen by lot, sir cousin," replied the lieutenant, his
cheek pale and his jaws set. "I will expect you to breakfast to-morrow
morning at eight o'clock."

The bridegroom nodded, and took the other's cold dry hand for an
instant. The men who had overheard the short conversation looked upon
it as a meaningless incident, the memory of which would disappear from
the lieutenant's brain with the vanishing wine fumes.

The ball was now over. The bride left the hall with her husband and
several of the guests who were to accompany the young couple to their
new home. The lights went out in the old house. The door of the
dancing hall had been locked from the outside. Lieutenant Flemming
Wolff remained alone in the room, having hidden himself in a dark
corner where he had not been seen by the servants, who had
extinguished the lights and locked the door. The night watchman had
just called out two o'clock when the solitary guest found himself,
still giddy from the heavy wine, alone in the great dark hall in front
of the mysterious door.

The windows were at only a slight elevation from the street, and a
spring would take him to safety should his desire to remain there, or
to solve the mystery of the sealed room, vanish. But next morning all
the windows in the great hall were found closed, just as the servants
had left them the night before. The nigh