Softly, very gingerly, I made good my footing on the slender bridge, and, disengaging the rope, let it go.

Then, not without another qualm, I sat down astride of the beam, and whistled in token of success.

Success so far! It was a strange position, and I have often dreamed of it since.

In the darkness about me Paris lay to all seeming asleep.

A veil, and not the veil of night only, was stretched between it and me; between me, a mere lad, and the strange secrets of a great city; stranger, grimmer, more deadly that night than ever before or since.