Page:Dale - A Marriage Below Zero.djvu/322

This page has been validated.
316
A Marriage Below Zero.

were any other occupants than Arthur in the hotel, they kept themselves out of sight. I stopped in front of room No. 18. It was the first to the right on the second floor. I knocked at the door, hut received no answer. I listened, but nobody seemed to be behind the thin, cracked door to which a lock and key offered but slight security. I repeated my knocks without the least success, and, at last, I retraced my steps, found the proprietor, and told him that he must be mistaken; that the young Englishman must be out.

"No, he is not out," said the man vigorously.

"I have stood here all day. I wished to warn him," hesitatingly, "for—for I liked him. He has not left his room. I can swear to that. Come with me; I think I can make him hear."

Oppressed by the awful character of the events in which I seemed myself to be involved, I followed him, and again ascended the creaking staircase. The proprietor's emphatic knock was as unsuccessful as mine. He waited for a minute or two, and then opening the door of the room next to No. 18, which he told me had been occupied by M. Delacroix, he entered that apartment