"Well, open the door and I will soon see. Oh, it is locked. Well, never mind. I will come through the portiere way."
He soon appeared with a light, and Fritz crept from under the bed and sat blinking beside it.
The three boys were astonished to see the landlord in their room without having to ask them to remove the barricade. They did not know that the portiere hung before an open door leading into the hall as did the one they had taken so much trouble to make secure.
"Now, boys," he said, laughing heartily, "have you lost your senses, or had you none to lose? Now tell me, Fritz, why were you under the bed?"
"I don't know how I got there, but I dreamed that I was in a trunk and the lid was almost down, and I could not raise it."
"Oh, you silly boy! of course you fell out of that narrow bed. What possessed you to all crowd in there when there are three beds in the room?"
"We did not wish to pay for all three."
"Then why did you not tell me that you wished only one bed, and I would have put you in a room where there is a larger one? Now, why did you barricade the door?"
"We were afraid of robbers," explained Paul after a long pause.
This amused the innkeeper mightily and he laughed till he shook.