a
meerschaum mouthpiece, in deference to his huge mustache--it was more
genteel to smoke a cigar than a pipe. The steward carried a cigar case,
which always contained two or three of the choicest brand, and he
claimed to have brought them from Havana himself. In this case he also
carried matches, which now promised to serve him a better turn than for
the lighting of his cigar.

In a moment he had the lamp from the lantern burning, and was looking
curiously and eagerly about the premises. The steward had an idea;
perhaps not a very brilliant one, but as brilliant as could be expected
of a man whose intellect had been so rudely jarred twice within a brief
period. The conduct of the two transient guests at the Hotel de Poisson
had been suspicious, to say the least. That afternoon the robbery had
been fully discussed, and he was confident that the visitors were in
some manner connected with that affair. His idea was, that the
fish-house had been used as a place of concealment for the plunder. He
made a hasty examination of the ground and the rocks which formed the
first floor of the Hotel de Poisson, but discovered nothing to confirm
his impression.

The steward crossed the place to examine under the rickety stairs. On
his way he hit his head against a splintered board, which was hanging
from the floor above, partly detached by his movement through the
structure. It scratched the top of his head, already tender from rough
usage, and thereby vexed and angered him, as slight accidents often
ruffle even great minds. With a gesture of impatience, and a petulant
word not in good taste for a drawing-room, he seized the projecting
board, and gave it a savage wrench.

Mr. Ebenier was not a poet himself, but he was fond of the poets, and
had perused Milton, Shakspeare, Beattie, Cowper, and Keats with real
pleasure, to say nothing of having read Corneille and Racine in the
original. The steward, therefore, was prepared to appreciate the poet's
sentiment, "Oft from apparent ills our blessings rise." His impatient
gesture and his petulant exclamation when the board scratched his head,
indicated that he regarded the accident as "an apparent ill;" but, as
he wrenched the board, a shot-bag, plethoric with gold coin, tumbled,
with a clinking clang, upon the ground at his feet, narrowly avoiding
his head, and thus saying him from being knocked senseless a third
time.

The steward opened his eyes, and regarded the bag as the blessing. H