"Have you a lantern?" asked Bouchard in exasperation.
"A lantern?" repeated Minna blankly. Time! time! She must gain time!
"Yes, you gawk, a lantern!"
"Certainly; you'll need one," said Minna—"a big one! Go and fetch a big army one—and some soldiers to fight the ghosts. But what are soldiers against ghosts? Oh, sir, I don't like to think of you going at all. Please, sir, don't, for the sake of your life!"
There Bouchard frowned heavily and his hawk eyes flashed in command and decision.
"Enough of this farce! A lamp, a candle will do. Come, get me one immediately!"
Just as she was at her wits' end and it seemed as if there were nothing left to do but to scream and fall in a faint in front of Bouchard, her ear caught the welcome sound which told her that Marta had returned from the tunnel.
"Yes, sir. Won't you come in, sir? Of course, sir," she said, standing aside. "Won't you be seated, sir?"
"Good day, Colonel Bouchard!" called Marta, appearing in the doorway.
"He wants to go into the dungeons to see the ghosts!" Minna exclaimed in a return of horror before Bouchard had time to say a word, while she screwed up the side of her face away from him suggestively to Marta. "Those terrible ghosts! I'm afraid for him. Like a man, he may go right into the dungeons, even if you didn't dare to, Miss Galland."