Then a single light footstep on the stair; and nothing more.

Then a light crept under the door and nothing more.

Presently there was a gentle scratching, not half so loud as a mouse's,
and the false door-post opened by degrees, and left a perpendicular
space, through which the light streamed in. The door, had it been
bolted, would now have hung by the bare tip of the bolt, which went into
the real door-post, but as it was, it swung gently open of itself. It
opened inwards, so Denys did not raise his crossbow from the ground, but
merely grasped his dagger.

The candle was held up, and shaded from behind by a man's hand.

He was inspecting the beds from the threshold, satisfied that his
victims were both in bed.

The man glided into the apartment. But at the first step something in
the position of the cupboard and chair made him uneasy. He ventured no
further, but put the candle on the floor and stooped to peer under
the chair; but as he stooped, an iron hand grasped his shoulder, and a
dagger was driven so fiercely through his neck that the point came
out at his gullet. There was a terrible hiccough, but no cry; and
half-a-dozen silent strokes followed in swift succession, each a
death-blow, and the assassin was laid noiselessly on the floor.

Denys closed the door, bolted it gently, drew the post to, and even
while he was going whispered Gerard to bring a chair. It was done.

"Help me set him up."

"Dead?"

"Parbleu."

"What for?"

"Frighten them! Gain time."

Even while saying this, Denys had whipped a piece of string round the
dead man's neck, and tied him to the chair, and there the ghastly figure
sat fronting the door.

"Denys, I can do better. Saints forgive me!"

"What? Be quick then, we have not many moments."

And Denys got his crossbow ready, and tearing off his straw mattress,
reared it before him and prepared to shoot the moment the door should
open, for he had no hope any more would come singly, when they found the
first did not return.

While thus employed, Gerard was busy about the seated corpse, and to
his amazement Denys saw a luminous glow spreading rapidly over the white
face.

Gerard blew out the candle; and on this the corpse's face shone still
more like a glowworm's head.

Denys shook in his shoes, and his teeth chattered.

"What, in Heaven's name, is this?" he whispered.

"Hush! 'tis but phosphorus, but 'twill serve."

"Away! they will surprise thee."

In fact, unea