and they plunged into the dense shadow of the
thickets. A clearer space was revealed to them when they reached the
edge of the central lawn. At the same moment a ray of moonlight pierced
the clouds; and they saw the castle, with its pointed turrets arranged
around the tapering spire to which, no doubt, it owed its name. There
was no light in the windows; not a sound.

Valmeras grasped his companion's arm:

"Keep still!"

"What is it?"

"The dogs, over there--look--"

There was a growl. Valmeras gave a low whistle. Two white forms leapt
forward and, in four bounds, came and crouched at their master's feet.

"Gently--lie down--that's it--good dogs--stay there."

And he said to Beautrelet:

"And now let us push on. I feel more comfortable."

"Are you sure of the way?"

"Yes. We are near the terrace."

"And then?"

"I remember that, on the left, at a place where the river terrace rises
to the level of the ground-floor windows, there is a shutter which
closes badly and which can be opened from the outside."

They found, when they came to it, that the shutter yielded to pressure.
Valmeras removed a pane with a diamond which he carried. He turned the
window-latch. First one and then the other stepped over the balcony.
They were now in the castle, at the end of a passage which divided the
left wing into two.

"This room," said Valmeras, "opens at the end of a passage. Then comes
an immense hall, lined with statues, and at the end of the hall a
staircase which ends near the room occupied by your father."

He took a step forward.

"Are you coming, Beautrelet?"

"Yes, yes."

"But no, you're not coming--What's the matter with you?"

He seized him by the hand. It was icy cold and he perceived that the
young man was cowering on the floor.

"What's the matter with you?" he repeated.

"Nothing--it'll pass off--"

"But what is it?"

"I'm afraid--"

"You're afraid?"

"Yes," Beautrelet confessed, frankly, "it's my nerves giving way--I
generally manage to control them--but, to-day, the silence--the
excitement--And then, since I was stabbed by that magistrate's
clerk--But it will pass off--There, it's passing now--"

He succeeded in rising to his feet and Valmeras dragged him out of the
room. They groped their way along the passage, so softly that neither
could hear a sound made by the other.

A faint glimmer, however, seemed to light the hall for which they were
making. Valmeras put his head round the