n. She could form no idea of the length of time she had spent
upstairs, a half-hour, or an hour and a half; and without more ado she
raised the latch, slipped out, and turning the key on her patient ran
down the upper flight of stairs.

She anticipated many things, but not that which she encountered--silence
on the upper landing, and below when she had descended and opened the
staircase door--an empty room. The place was vacant; the tables were as
she had left them, half laid; the pot was gently simmering over the
fire.

What had happened? The supper-hour was past, yet none of the four who
should have sat down to the meal were here. Had they overheard her
mother's terrible cry--those words which voiced the woman's despair on
finding, as she fancied, the city betrayed? And were they gone to
denounce her? The thought was discarded as soon as formed; and before
she could hit on a second explanation a hasty knocking on the door
turned her eyes that way.

The four who lodged in the house were not in the habit of knocking, for
the door was only locked at night when the last retired. She approached
it then, wondering, hesitated an instant, and at last, collecting her
courage, raised the latch. The door resisted her impulse. It was locked.

She tried it twice, and it was only as she drew back the second time
that she saw the key lying at the foot of the door. That deepened the
mystery. Why had they locked her in? Why, when they had done so, had
they thrust the key under the door and so placed it in her power? Had
Claude Mercier done it that the others might not enter to hear what he
had heard and discover what he had discovered? Possibly. In which case
the knocker--who at that instant made a second and more earnest attack
upon the door--must be one of the others, and the sooner she opened the
door the less would be the suspicion created.

With an apology trembling on her lips she hastened to open. Then she
stood bewildered; she saw before her, not one of the lodgers, but Messer
Blondel. "I wish to speak to you," the magistrate said with firmness.
Before she knew what was happening he had motioned to her to go before
him into the house, and following had locked the door behind them.

She knew him by sight, as did all Geneva; and the blood, which surprise
at the sight of a stranger had brought to her cheeks, fled as she
recognised the Syndic. Had they betrayed her, then, while she lingered
upstairs? Had they locked her in w