ch to
employ themselves. Fortunately, midshipmen, as O'Grady boasted, have a
powerful knack of sleeping; and so they passed most of the time, in the
intervals of their meals, lost in oblivion of all sublunary matters. As
the shades of evening drew on, they roused up and were all animation.
They had reconnoitred the path to the village, and found that it would
be necessary to get down to the beach while there was still daylight to
enable them to see their way. They hoped to find shelter in some
boat-shed or out-house till the inhabitants had gone to bed. They went
on cautiously, Paul in advance, lest they should meet any one; Reuben
hobbling forward on his wooden leg and sticks. The lights in the
village were being put out as they approached. "They are early people--
so much the better for us," thought Paul. "We can easily seize a boat
and get off."

The thought had scarcely passed through his mind, when a voice
exclaimed, "Hallo! who goes there?"

"A friend," answered Paul.

"How many friends?" asked the man. "Let me see: two young lads and a
lame man--answers the description. Come along with me, my friends, for
I have more to say to you."

The two midshipmen and Reuben followed, much crest-fallen. They were in
the hands of the police; of that there could be no doubt. Should they
keep up their assumed characters, or acknowledge their true ones and
brave the worst. They could not venture to speak to consult with each
other. Paul thought that the best plan would be to keep silent till
compelled to speak. He therefore got as near O'Grady as he could, and,
pretending to stumble, put his finger against his friend's lips.
O'Grady passed on the signal soon afterwards to Reuben. This matter
arranged, they quietly followed their captor--O'Grady doing his best to
hum a tune which he had heard Rosalie sing, and forgetting that he
pretended to be deaf as well as dumb. There was still sufficient light
for them to see that their captor was a gendarme, a discovery far from
pleasant, as it led them to suppose that some person in authority was at
the place, who might dispose of them in a somewhat summary manner. The
man turned round once or twice, and told them, in no pleasant voice, to
walk quicker, while he led the way to the chateau they had observed from
the cliff. They found themselves standing before the chateau. It
looked vast and gloomy in the dark. In another minute they were in a
large hall in the pres