g to earn it, but I 'd like to see it."

"What's that down there?"

"You don't attend to my suggestion, M. Sevier."

"Sevier!" muttered the Captain, and a smile spread over his face.

"Call me Guillaume," came sharply from the voice he had first heard.

"Exactly," murmured Dieppe. "Call him anything except his name. Oh,
exactly!"

"It looks like--like a building--a shed or something. Come, he may be
in there."

"Oh!" murmured the lady. "You won't let them in?"

"They sha'n't see you," Dieppe reassured her. "But listen, my dear
friend, listen."

"Who 's the other? Sevier?"

"A gentleman who takes an interest in me. But silence, pray, silence,
if you--if you 'll be guided by me."

"Let's go down and try the door. If he 's not there, anyhow we can
shelter ourselves till he turns up."

There was a pause. Feet could be heard climbing and slithering down
the slippery grass slope.

"What if you find it locked?"

"Then I shall think some one is inside, and some one who has discovered
reasons for not wishing to be met."

"And what will you do?" The voices were very near now, and Paul's
discontented sneer made the Captain smile; but his hand sought the
pocket where his revolver lay.

"I shall break it open--with your help, my friend."

"I give no more help, friend Sevier--or Guillaume, or what you
like--till I see my money. Deuce take it, the fellow may be armed!"

"I did n't engage you for a picnic, Monsieur Paul."

"It's the pay, not the work, that's in dispute, my friend. Come, you
have the money, I suppose? Out with it!"

"Not a sou till I have the papers!"

The Captain nodded his head. "I was right, as usual," he was thinking
to himself, as he felt his breast-pocket caressingly.

The wind rose to a gust and howled.

The voices became inaudible. The Captain bent down and whispered.

"If they force the door open," he said, "or if I have to open it and go
out, you 'd do well to get behind that straw there till you see what
happens. They expect nobody but me, and when they 've seen me they
won't search any more."

He saw, with approval and admiration, that she was calm and cool.

"Is there danger?" she asked.

"No," said he. "But one of them wants some papers I have, and has
apparently engaged the other to assist him. M. de Roustache feels
equal to two jobs, it seems. I wonder if he knows whom he's after,
though."

"Would they take the papers by force?" Her voice was very