third gate, and there it was shining just like a spark of fire. There was
no denying it."

Marie Lagoutte looked at me a few moments without speaking.

"You may be sure, doctor, that after that I had no more sleep; I sat
watching and ready for anything. Every moment I fancied I could hear
something behind the arm-chair. I was not afraid--it was not that--but
I was uneasy and restless. When morning came, very early I ran and woke
Offenloch and sent him to the count. Passing down the corridor I noticed
that there was no torch in the first ring, and I came down and found it
near the narrow path to the Schwartzwald; there it is!"

And the good woman took from under her apron the end of a torch, which
she threw upon the table.

I was confounded.

How had that man, whom I had seen the night before feeble and exhausted,
been able to rise, walk, lift up and close down that heavy window? What
was the meaning of that signal by night? I seemed to myself to witness
this strange, mysterious scene, and my thoughts went off at once to the
Black Plague. When I aroused myself from this contemplation of my own
thoughts, I saw Marie Lagoutte rising and preparing to go.

"You have done quite right," I said as I took her to the door, "to tell
me of these things, and I am much obliged to you. Have you told any one
else of this adventure?"

"No one, sir; such things are only to be told to the priest and the