.

THE DUEL.
At the foot of the staircase Tignonville paused.

The droning Norman voices of the men on guard issued from an open door a few paces before him on the left.

He caught a jest, the coarse chuckling laughter which attended it, and the gurgle of applause which followed; and he knew that at any moment one of the men might step out and discover him.

Fortunately the door of the room with the shattered window was almost within reach of his hand on the right side of the passage, and he stepped softly to it.
He stood an instant hesitating, his hand on the latch; then, alarmed by a movement in the guard-room, as if some were rising, he pushed the door in a panic, slid into the room, and shut the door behind him.