ou shall not go!" cried a woman's voice.

"I tell you that I will!" said a man's, and there was a sound of
scuffling.

In an instant I had my eye to the crack in the floor.

There was my stout lady, like a faithful watch-dog, at the bottom of
the ladder, while the young German surgeon, white with anger, was
endeavouring to come up it.

Several of the German soldiers who had recovered from their prostration
were sitting about on the kitchen floor and watching the quarrel with
stolid, but attentive, faces.

The landlord was nowhere to be seen.

"There is no liquor there," said the woman.

"I do not want liquor; I want hay or straw for these men to lie upon.
Why should they lie on the bricks when there is straw overhead?"

"There is no straw."

"What is up there?"

"Empty bottles."

"Nothing else?"

"No."

For a moment it looked as if the surgeon would abandon his intention,
but one of the soldiers pointed up to the ceiling. I gathered from what
I could understand of his words that he could see the straw sticking
out between the planks. In vain the woman protested. Two of the soldiers
were able to get upon their feet and to drag her aside, while the young
surgeon ran up the ladder, pushed open the trap-door, and climbed into
the loft.

As he swung the door back I slipped behind it, but as luck would have
it he shut it again behind him, and there we were left standing face to
face.

Never have I seen a more astonished young man.

"A French officer!" he gasped.

"Hush!" said I, "hush! Not a word above a whisper."

I had drawn my sword.

"I am not a combatant," he said; "I am a doctor. Why do you threaten me
with your sword? I am not armed."

"I do not wish to hurt you, but I must protect myself. I am in hiding
here."

"A spy!"

"A spy does not wear such a uniform as this, nor do you find spies on
the staff of an army. I rode by mistake into the heart of this Prussian
corps, and I concealed myself here in the hope of escaping when they are
past. I will not hurt you if you do not hurt me, but if you do not swear
that you will be silent as to my presence you will never go down alive
from this attic."

"You can put up your sword, sir," said the surgeon, and I saw a friendly
twinkle in his eyes. "I am a Pole by birth, and I have no ill-feeling to
you or your people. I will do my best for my patients, but I will do no
more. Capturing Hussars is not one of the duties of a surgeon. With your
permiss