as plain
that he was on pins and needles. "At his house. Cannot you believe me?"
in a querulous tone. "It is all fair and above board. I swear it is."

"Is it?"

"It is--I swear it is. He sent me. Do you doubt me?" he added with
undisguised eagerness.

Claude was about to say, with no politeness at all, that he did, and to
repeat his refusal in stronger terms, when his ear caught the same sound
which had revealed so much to him a few minutes earlier at the foot of
the stairs. It came more faintly this time, deadened by the closed door
of the staircase, but to his enlightened senses it proclaimed so clearly
what it was--the echo of a cracked, shrill voice, of a laugh insane,
uncanny, elfish--that he trembled lest Louis should hear it also and
gain the clue. That was a thing to be avoided at all costs; and even as
this occurred to him he saw the way to avoid it. Basterga and Grio were
absent: if this fool could be removed, even for an hour or two, Anne
would have the house to herself, and by midnight the crisis might be
overpast.

"I will come with you," he said.

Louis uttered a sigh of relief. He had expected--and he had very nearly
received--another answer. "Good," he said. "But he does not want me."

"Both or neither," Claude replied coolly. "For all I know 'tis an
ambush."

"No, no!"

"In which event I shall see that you share it. Or it may be a scheme to
draw me from here, and then if harm be done while I am away----"

"Harm? What harm?" Louis muttered.

"Any harm! If harm be done, I say, I shall then have you at hand to pay
me for it. So--both or neither!"

For a moment Louis' hang-dog face--none the handsomer for the mark of
the Syndic's cane--spelt refusal. Then he changed his mind. He nodded
sulkily. "Very well," he said. "But it is raining, and I have no great
wish to--Hush! What is that?" He raised his hand in the attitude of one
listening and his eyes sought his companion's. "What is that? Did you
not hear something--like a scream upstairs?"

"I hear something like a fool downstairs!" Claude retorted gruffly.

"But it was--I certainly heard something!" Louis persisted, raising his
hand again. "It sounded----"

"If we are to go, let us go!" Claude cried with temper. "Come, if you
want me to go! It is not my expedition," he continued, moving noisily
hither and thither in search of his staff and cloak. "It is your affair,
and--where is my cap?"

"I should think it is in your room," Louis answ