flight, all was not yet lost, and he had still a chance of life.
"Captain," says I, taking a bearing cautiously, "is the supposition right that a matter of the heavenly bodies hath also brought you into the night at this unpropitious season?"
"Well, scarcely," says the Captain. "'Tis my duty, madam."
That word in its solemnity made me start. And it was spoken in a voice so pregnant and so deep that it frightened the trembling prisoner too. The violence of his emotion caused him to stir uneasily, and make the straw crack.
"Dear me!" I cried, "did you hear that mouse?" And I gathered my skirts up in my horror, and huddled my ankles one against the other in the extremity of fear.
"A mouse?" the Captain says; "must have been a very big one, dear lady. Say a rat now; liker a rat, I'm thinking."
"Oh no," I shivered, "'twas a mouse, I'm positive. I felt his little tail against my shoe. I have no fear of rats—but a mouse, it is a frightful creature."
"That shoe must be highly sensitive, dear lady," says the Captain, with a laugh and holding down the light. "Ah! I see that shoe is a carpet slipper. A carpet slipper on a frosty night. How odd!"
I repeat, the Captain was become the devil.
"Odd? They are indeed," says I. "That care-
