Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-10-14

without quaverlng-through the win
dow, taking as little time over it us
possible, for bell was already pro-
claiming midnight.
All this had done on the spur of the
moment. But outside, hanging by my
hands in the darkness, the strokes of
the great bell in my ears, had a mo-
ment in which to think The sense
of the vibrating depth below me, the
airiness, the space and gloom around,
frightened me. Are you ready?" NUT
tered Marie, perhaps with a little inn
patience. lie had not scrap of imag-
nation, had Marie.
No. wait a minute!" | blurted out,
clinging to the sill, and taking a last
look at the bare room, AMI the two dark
figures between me and the light.
moi" ! added, hurriedig, "Croisette
boys, called you cowards Just now.
/ take it baclel | did not Iuean It'll
That is ALL" l gasped. Let go!"
A warm touch on my hand. Some
thing like sob.
The next moment | felt myself slid
ing down the face of the house, down
into the depth. Tie light shot up.
My head turned giddily | chung, oh,
how | chung to that rope! Half why
down the thought struck me that in
case Of accident those above might not
be strong enough to pull me up again.
But it was TOO late to think of that,
and in another second my feet touched
the beam. | breathed again. Softly,
very gingcrly, ] made good my footing
on the slender bridge, aud, disengaging
the rope, let it 60. Then, not without
another qualm, | sat down astride OF
the beam, and whistled in token Of sue
cess. Success so far!
1t was strange position, and have
often dreamed Of it since. In the dark
ness about me Paris lay 10 all seeming
asleep 4 veil, and not the veil of night
only, was stretched between it and
me; between me, a mere lad. and the
strange secrets of great city;
stranger, grimmer, more deadly that
night than ever before or since. How
many men were watching under those
dimly-secn roofs. with arms in their
hands? How many sat with murder
at heart? How many were waking,
who ut dawn would sleep forever, or
sleeping Who would wake only mt the
knife's edge? These things | could not
know, any more than | could picture
how many boon companions were part
ing at that instant, Just risen from the
dice, one To 20 bIindly-the other
watching hin-to his death? / corId
l.,
secrets, or a hundreth part Of the
treachery and cruelty and greed that
lurl1ed at my feet, ready To burst all
bounds at a pistol-shot. 1t had no sig
nifcance for me that the past day was
the 23d of August, or that the morrow
was ST. Bartholomew FEAST
No. Yet mingled with the iubilation
which the possibility Of triumph over
our enemy raised in my breast, there
was certainly foreboding. The VI
danes hints, no less than his open
boasts, had pointed to something to
happen before morning-something
wider than tho mere murder of q single
man. The warning also which tie
Baron de Rosny had given Us at the inn
occurred to me with new meaning. And
I could not shake the feeling of. |
fancied, as / sat in the darkness astride
of my beam, that l could see, closing
the narrow vista Of the street, the
heavy mass Of the Louvre, and that the
murmur Of voices and the tramp Of men
assembling came from its courts, with
now and again the stealthy challenge
of sentry, the restrained voice of an
officer. Scarcely wayfarer passed
beneath me; 20 few, indeed, that had
no fear of being detected from below.