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The most striking quality of this Stevenson story is its rhythm: there is a continuous and repetitious movement from the safe to the dangerous, the dangerous to the safe. Denis de Beaulieu is at first confident and happy; his life becomes endangered; he retreats to safety; he finds himself in danger again; and again he attempts to escape, only to involve himself in more danger. Finally he is relieved of all threats, and the reader is released from the tensions of this rhythmic narrative. This tension, this rhythm, is, in a sense, the true theme of the story; and thus die final union of Blanche and Dennis is insignificant. It is, rather, the apprehension for and with Denis, the anticipation of his ultimate well-being which excites us, which has die most meaning for us. It is only these flights into danger and retreats to safety that make the ending possible at all; the pleasure of Denis' union with Blanche results from the anticipation of that very pleasure. If this is true for the reader, it is certainly true for Denis, a young man whose final happiness is prepared by the danger he becomes involved in, and the union with Blanche made pleasurable by its contrast with the preceding danger.
In addition to this safety-danger anxiety, there is another impressive quality to this story — that of unreality. The setting, of course, is remote in time and space; but also the descriptions of the nocturnal scene provide the story with an air of mystery and foreboding. And the most unreal aspect is the exaggerated nature of the characters: the derring-do,