He was still shuddering, when on the shutter which masked the casement came a knock, thrice repeated.

A cautious knock of which the mere sound implied an understanding.
The Syndic remained motionless, glaring at the window.

Everything on a night like this, and to an uneasy conscience, menaced danger.

At length it occurred to him that the applicant might be Louis, whom he had sent with the message to the Porte Neuve: and he took the lamp and went to admit him, albeit reluctantly, for what did the booby mean by returning?
It was late, and only to open at this hour might, in the light cast by after events, raise suspicions.
But it was not Louis.

The lamp flickering in the draught of the doorway disclosed a huge dusky form, glimmering metallic here and there, that in a trice pushed him back, passed by him, entered.