But just as they came to the corner of the Rue Auber, the door of a court-yard on their left was thrown open, and without slowing up the cab ran through it. Three men appeared at either door, Ralph was gripped and roughly dragged away before he could even make a show of resistance. He heard Josephine, who had remained in the cab, say: “Saint Lazare Station! And be quick about it!” The six men rushed him into the house, shoved him into a badly lighted room, and locked its massive door on him. * * * * * The exaltation which Ralph had been enjoying did not immediately abate. He went on laughing and joking, but in a growing fury and in tones that changed as it grew. “Bravo, Josephine!... But what a master-stroke!... What a shot! Right in the middle of the bull’s-eye and when I was least expecting it.... How funny she must have found my songs of triumph! ‘I am cut out for conquest, for the extraordinary and the fabulous!’ Idiot that I was! When one is capable of such blunders, one should keep one’s mouth shut. What a smash!” He flung himself on the door. What was the use? It was the door of a cell. He tried to jump up to the little window which let in that dim light. There was no way of reaching it. Then a noise caught his ear; and he perceived that a loophole had been cut in the corner of the wall, just under the ceiling, and that the barrel of a rifle was pointing at him, and that it followed his every movement. All his anger turned on the invisible marksman; and he abused him freely. “Hog! Guttersnipe! Come out of that hole, and I’ll show you! A nice job yours is! Go and tell your mistress that she’s hardly on the way to heaven yet, and that before long----” He stopped short. It was a stupid waste of words. Then, passing suddenly from the height of fury to a quiet resignation, he lay down on a bed in an alcove which was fitted up as a dressing-room. “You can kill me if you like,” he said. “But don’t stop me going to sleep.” Really he never dreamed of going to sleep. The first thing was to consider his situation quietly and draw from it conclusions which promised to be uncommonly disagreeable. In fact, they could be summed up in a few words. Josephine Balsamo had substituted herself for him, with the intention of reaping the fruits of his victory. But what an organization she must have to be able to act so successfully in so little time! Ralph had no doubt that Leonard, accompanied by a confederate, had followed them to Beaumagnan’s house and while he was in it had arranged with her the trap into which he had so simply fallen. This house must have been specially fitted up for such a purpose. What could he do at his age against such enemies? On the one hand, Beaumagnan, with a whole world of correspondents and associates behind him; on the other hand, Josephine Balsamo, with so powerful and so well organized a gang.