pass, and now--"

The good man was silent, and did not finish his sentence.

"As for me," said the landlord, whose face was rather flushed, "I bought
a field last spring, which I had been wanting for ten years."

They talked thus like men whose tongues are loosened by wine, and they
each took that friendly liking to the others of which we are never
stingy on a journey; so that when the time came to separate for the
night, Wilhelm offered his bed to the merchant.

"You can accept it without hesitation," he said, "for I can sleep with
Prosper. It won't be the first, nor the last time either. You are our
elder, and we ought to honor age!"

"Bah!" said the landlord, "my wife's bed has several mattresses; take
one off and put it on the floor."

So saying, he went and shut the window, making all the noise that
prudent operation demanded.

"I accept," said the merchant; "in fact I will admit," he added,
lowering his voice and looking at the two Frenchmen, "that I desired it.
My boatmen seem to me suspicious. I am not sorry to spend the night with
two brave young men, two French soldiers, for, between ourselves, I have
a hundred thousand francs in gold and diamonds in my valise."

The friendly caution with which this imprudent confidence was received
by the two young men, seemed to reassure the German. The landlord
assisted in taking off one of the mattresses, and when all was arranged
for the best he bade them good-night and went off to bed.

The merchant and the surgeons laughed over the nature of their pillows.
Prosper put his case of surgical instruments and that of Wilhelm under
the end of his mattress to raise it and supply the place of a bolster,
which was lacking. Wahlenfer, as a measure of precaution, put his valise
under his pillow.

"We shall both sleep on our fortune," said Prosper, "you, on your gold;
I, on my instruments. It remains to be seen whether my instruments will
ever bring me the gold you have now acquired."

"You may hope so," said the merchant. "Work and honesty can do
everything; have patience, however."

Wahlenfer and Wilhelm were soon asleep. Whether it was that his bed
on the floor was hard, or that his great fatigue was a cause of
sleeplessness, or that some fatal influence affected his soul, it is
certain that Prosper Magnan continued awake. His thoughts unconsciously
took an evil turn. His mind dwelt exclusively on the hundred thousand
francs which lay beneath the merchant's pillow.