SHALL \VK KILL THEM BOTH? 331 



below, we in the upper room where we had eaten. A 

 loft seven or eight feet high, reached by a ladder, was 

 tin* bed that awaited us a kind of nest that one got 

 into by crawling under joists laden with provisions 

 for a year. My comrade climbed up alone and was 

 soon asleep, his head on the precious valise; I de- 

 termined to watch, so made a good fire and sat clown 

 by it. 



" 'The night had almost passed, quietly enough, 

 and I began to feel reassured, when, just as it 

 seemed to me it must be near daylight, I heard our 

 host and his wife quarreling immediately under me, 

 and, putting my ear close to the fire-place that com- 

 municated with the one below, I distinguished per- 

 t'< < -tly this proposal of the husband: "Wellj now, 

 let us see; shall we kill them both?" To which the 

 woman answered: "Yes." And I heard nothing 

 more. 



" 'What can I say? I remained scarcely breath- 

 ing, my body cold as marble. God! AYhen I think 

 <>f it ! We two all but unarmed against those twelve 

 or fifteen with so many weapons ! And my comrade 

 dead with sleep and fatigue! To make a noise l.y 

 railing him, I dared not; to escape by myself, I could 

 not. The window was not far from the ground, but 

 beneath it two - were bowling like wolves.' M 



"Poor inmiier!" Kmile exclaimed. 



"And his comrade sleeping like a simpleton!" 

 Claire added. 



" ' At the end of a quarter of an hour, which seemed 

 , I heard some one on the stairs, and through tin- 

 cracks of the door I saw the father, a lamp in one 



