iescent for an hour or two more, the danger
would be over.

"The long hours of the winter's night dragged out their weary length.
Yet not weary to me. For, as I kept my vigil by the pipe and fed the
stove silently at intervals, I was on the very tip-toe of expectation.
Every moment I dreaded to hear the disastrous crash on the door that
should herald a fresh slaughter; and, as the minutes passed and all
remained still, hope rose higher and higher. Sometimes I caught a
glimpse of my quarry through the chink of their cupboard door; for I had
opened the slide fully a foot, finding that the clothes that hung from
the pegs would screen me, even if the darkness on my side had not done
so already. So I saw one of them sit down on a low chair and crouch,
shuddering, over the coke stove, while the other restlessly paced the
room.

"And still the stream of deadly gas trickled unceasingly from the pipe.

"Presently the former rose and yawned heavily. 'Bah!' he growled, 'I am
tired. I shall lie down. If I fall asleep, Boris, do you watch, and wake
me if you hear them coming.'

"By craning my neck through the opening I could just continue to get a
glimpse of him as he threw himself on a mattress that was spread on the
floor. The other man continued for a while to pace the room; then he sat
down on the chair and spread his hands out over the stove, muttering to
himself. I watched him as well as I could through the chink of the
cupboard doors by the dim light of the stinking paraffin lamp; a greasy,
unwholesome-looking wretch, sallow, pallid and unshorn; and thought how
striking he would look in the form of a reduced, dry preparation.

"But that was impossible. I was now working only for the police.
Regrettable as it was, I should have to surrender these two specimens
to the coroner and the gravedigger. A deplorable waste of material, but
unavoidable--even if one of them should prove to be my long-sought
enemy.

"At this thought I started; and at that moment the man on the mattress
gave a strange, snorting cry. The ruffian, Boris, looked round, rose,
went over to the mattress and stirred the other with his foot. 'Louis!
Louis!' he cried angrily, 'what the devil are you making that noise
for?'

"The other man scrambled up with a cry of terror, pistol in hand. 'Ah!
it is you, Boris! I was dreaming. I thought they had come.' He sat down
again on the mattress and yawned. 'Bah! I am sleepy. I must lie down
again. Watch a little lo