'You may hear a roaring lot here by-and-by,' said his host; 'but you are a soldier, and I dare say will sleep sound enough. You will be tired, too, after your ride.' The man had now a sneaking and wicked look in his eyes, which avoided meeting those of Florian, and which the latter did not like, but there was no help for it then. 'You will call me early if I sleep too long,' said Florian, as Jarrett gave him a candle. The hand of the latter shook as he did so--he had evidently been drinking heavily, and his yellow-balled eyes were bloodshot, and his voice thick, as he said: 'Good-night, Sergeant; you'll sleep sound enough,' and closed the door. With a sigh almost of relief Florian found himself alone. He set down the sputtering candle, and turned to fasten the door. It was without a lock, and secured only by a latch, by which it could be opened from the outside as well as within. On making this startling discovery, Florian's heart glowed with indignation and growing alarm! He felt himself trapped! CHAPTER XX. BAFFLED! The room was small, low-ceiled, and its only furniture was a table, chair, and truckle-bed--all obviously of Dutch construction--and, unless he could find some means to secure his door, he resolved to remain awake till dawn. The only window in the room overlooked the roof of the stable where the dead horse lay. The sash was loose, and shook in the night wind, and he could see the bright and, to him, new constellations glittering in the southern sky. Florian contrived to secure the door by placing the chair on the floor as a wedge or barrier between it and the bedstead, on the mattress of which--though not very savoury in appearance--he cast himself, for he was weary, worn, and felt that there was an absolute necessity for husbanding his strength, as he knew not what might be before him, so he extinguished the candle. Something in the general aspect and bearing of the man Josh Jarrett, and in those of the woman, with her efforts to intoxicate him, and something, too, in his general surroundings and isolated situation--for the few scattered houses of Elandsbergen were all far apart--together with the memory of the prying face he had seen at the window, at the very moment he was picking up the gold, all served to put Florian on his guard; thus he lay down without undressing, and, longing only for daylight, grasped ever and anon the butt of his pistol. For some time past he had been unused to the luxury of even a truckle-bed or other arrangements for repose than his grey greatcoat and ammunition blanket, with a knapsack for a pillow; hence, despite his keen anxiety, he must have dropped asleep, for how long he knew not; but he suddenly started up as the sound of voices below came to his ear, and the full sense of his peculiar whereabouts rushed on him.