“That’s it,” I agreed hastily, the more hastily because I doubted.  “She’s sitting over a fire, toasting her toes, and gossiping and having a cup of tea, or whatever people like that use for an equivalent in these parts.”  I suppressed the unwelcome thought that a woman living here alone ran a first-rate chance of getting her throat cut by strolling vagrants.  “Shall we have to wait until she comes back?” I asked.  “Then let’s sit down.  I choose this stone!”

On my last word, however, something surprising happened.  Miss Falconer, in her impatience, put a hand on the bolt of the gate, shook it, and raised it, and, lo and behold! the oak frame swung open.  Before I quite realized the situation, we were inside, in a square courtyard, with the gardienne’s lodge at the right of us, impenetrably barred and shuttered, and before us the portal of the castle, surmounted with quaint stone carvings of men in armor riding prancing steeds.  The court, as revealed by the moonlight, was intact, but neglected.  Weeds were sprouting between the square blocks of stone that paved it, and in the center a wide circular space, charred and blackened, showed where the German sentries had built their fires.  It was not cheerful, nor was it homey.  I scarcely blamed Marie-Jeanne for flitting.  The faint sound of the cannonading had begun again in the distance, but otherwise the place was as silent as a tomb.

“It seems strange!” Miss Falconer murmured, looking about in puzzled fashion.  “Why in the world should she have left the gate open in this careless way?  Of course there is nothing here for thieves; the Germans saw to that; but still, as keeper—­Oh, well, it doesn’t matter.  It saves us from waiting till she comes home.”

As I followed her toward the castle entrance, she opened the bag she carried, and produced a candle, which I hastened to take and light.  I nearly said, “The latest thing in the housebreaking line, madame, is electric torches, not tapers;” but I decided not to.  After all, perhaps we were housebreakers.  How could I tell?

Hot candle wax splashed my fingers and scorched them, but I scarcely noticed.  My sense of high-gear adventure had reached its zenith now.  There was something thrilling, something stimulating in this stealthy night entrance into a deserted castle.  It was an experience, at all events; there was no concierge to stump before one through dim passages and up winding staircases; no flood of dates and names and anecdotes poured inexorably into one’s bored ears to insure a douceur when the tour of the chateau should be done.