ssimistically at Lisa as belonging to a sex liable
to error: instanced in this case by bolting the door too eagerly.

"Now," he said, turning to Desiree again, "have you any in Dantzig to
help you?"

"Yes," she answered rather slowly.

"Then send for him."

"I cannot do that."

"Then go for him yourself," snapped Barlasch impatiently.

He looked at her fiercely beneath his shaggy eyebrows.

"It is no use to be afraid," he said; "you are afraid--I see it in your
face. And it is never any use. Before they hammered on that door there,
my legs shook. For I am easily afraid--I. But it is never any use. And
when one opens the door, it goes."

He looked at her with a puzzled frown, seeking in vain, it may have
been, the ordinary symptoms of fear. She was hesitating but not afraid.
There ran blood in her veins which will for all time be associated by
history with a gay and indomitable courage.

"Come," he said sharply; "there is nothing else to do."

"I will go," said Desiree, at length, deciding suddenly to do the one
thing that is left to a woman once or twice in her life--to go to the
one man and trust him.

"By the back way," said Barlasch, helping her with the cloak that Lisa
had brought, and pulling the hood forward over her face with a jerk.
"Ah, I know that way. The patron is hiding in the yard. An old soldier
looks to the retreat--though the Emperor has saved us that, so far.
Come, I will help you over the wall, for the door is rusted."

The way, which Barlasch had perceived, led through the room at the back
of the kitchen to a yard, and thence through a door not opened by the
present occupiers of the old house, into a very labyrinth of narrow
alleys running downward to the river and round the tall houses that
stand against the cathedral walls.

The wall was taller than Barlasch, but he ran at it like a cat,
and Desiree standing below could see the black outline of his limbs
crouching on the top. He stooped down, and grasping her hands, lifted
her by the sheer strength of one arm, balanced her for an instant on the
wall, and then lowered her on the outer side.

"Run," he whispered.

She knew the way, and although the night was dark, and these narrow
alleys between high walls had no lamps, Desiree lost no time. The
Krahn-Thor is quite near to the Frauengasse. Indeed, the whole
of Dantzig occupied but a small space between the rivers in those
straitened days. The town was quieter than it had been for m