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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59072 ***
+
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+
+                            THE SECRET TOMB
+
+                     BY MAURICE LE BLANC
+                       CREATOR OF "ARSENE LUPIN"
+
+                            FRONTISPIECE BY
+                            GEORGE W. GAGE
+
+                               NEW YORK
+                         THE MACAULAY COMPANY
+
+                       COPYRIGHT, 1923,
+                   BY THE MACAULAY COMPANY
+
+                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Leave me alone!... I forbid you to touch me!"]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+      I THE CHÂTEAU DE ROBOREY
+
+     II DOROTHY'S CIRCUS
+
+    III EXTRA LUCID
+
+     IV THE CROSS-EXAMINATION
+
+      V "WE WILL HELP YOU"
+
+     VI ON THE ROAD
+
+    VII THE HOUR DRAWS NEAR
+
+   VIII ON THE IRON WIRE
+
+     IX FACE TO FACE
+
+      X TOWARDS THE GOLDEN FLEECE
+
+     XI THE WILL OF THE MARQUIS DE BEAUGREVAL
+
+    XII THE ELIXIR OF RESURRECTION
+
+   XIII LAZARUS
+
+    XIV THE FOURTH MEDAL
+
+     XV THE KIDNAPING OF MONTFAUCON
+
+    XVI THE LAST QUARTER OF A MINUTE
+
+   XVII THE SECRET PERISHES
+
+  XVIII IN ROBORE FORTUNA
+
+
+
+
+THE SECRET TOMB
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE CHÂTEAU DE ROBOREY
+
+
+Under a sky heavy with stars and faintly brighter for a low-hanging
+sickle moon, the gipsy caravan slept on the turf by the roadside, its
+shutters closed, its shafts stretched out like arms. In the shadow of
+the ditch nearby a stertorous horse was snoring.
+
+Far away, above the black crest of the hills, a bright streak of sky
+announced the coming of the dawn. A church clock struck four. Here and
+there a bird awoke and began to sing. The air was soft and warm.
+
+Abruptly, from the interior of the caravan, a woman's voice cried:
+
+"Saint-Quentin! Saint-Quentin!"
+
+A head was thrust out of the little window which looked out over the
+box under the projecting roof.
+
+"A nice thing this! I thought as much! The rascal has decamped in the
+night. The little beast! Nice discipline this is!"
+
+Other voices joined in the grumbling. Two or three minutes passed,
+then the door in the back of the caravan opened and a shadowy figure
+descended the five steps of the ladder while two tousled heads appeared
+at the side window.
+
+"Dorothy! Where are you going?"
+
+"To look for Saint-Quentin!" replied the shadowy figure.
+
+"But he came back with you from your walk last night; and I saw him
+settle down on the box."
+
+"You can see that he isn't there any longer, Castor."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Patience! I'm going to bring him back to you by the ears."
+
+But two small boys in their shirts came tumbling down the steps of the
+caravan and implored her:
+
+"No, no, mummy Dorothy! Don't you go away by yourself in the
+night-time. It's dangerous...."
+
+"What are you making a fuss about, Pollux? Dangerous? It's no business
+of yours!"
+
+She smacked them and kicked them gently, and brought them quickly back
+to the caravan into which they climbed. There, sitting on the stool,
+she took their two heads, pressed them against her face, and kissed
+them tenderly.
+
+"No ill feeling, children. Danger? I'll find Saint-Quentin in half an
+hour from now."
+
+"A nice business!... Saint-Quentin!... A beggar who isn't sixteen!"
+
+"While Castor and Pollux are twenty--taken together!" retorted Dorothy.
+
+"But what does he want to go traipsing about like this at night for?
+And it isn't the first time either.... Where is it he makes these
+expeditions to?"
+
+"To snare rabbits," she said. "There's nothing wrong in it, you see.
+But come, there's been talk enough about it. Go to by-by again, boys.
+And above all, Castor and Pollux, don't fight. D'you hear? And no
+noise. The Captain's asleep; and he doesn't like to be disturbed, the
+Captain doesn't."
+
+She took herself off, jumped over the ditch, crossed a meadow, in
+which her feet splashed up the water in the puddles, and gained a
+path which wound through a copse of young trees which only reached
+her shoulders. Twice already, the evening before, strolling with her
+comrade Saint-Quentin, she had followed this half-formed path, so that
+she went briskly forward without hesitating. She crossed two roads,
+came to a stream, the white pebbly bottom of which gleamed under the
+quiet water, stepped into it, and walked up it against the current, as
+if she wished to hide her tracks, and when the first light of day began
+to invest objects with clear shapes, darted forth afresh through the
+woods, light, graceful, not very tall, her legs bare below a very short
+skirt from which streamed behind her a flutter of many-colored ribbons.
+
+She ran, with effortless ease, surefooted, with never a chance of
+spraining an ankle, over the dead leaves, among the flowers of early
+spring, lilies of the valley, violet anemones, or white narcissi.
+
+Her black hair, not very long, was divided into two heavy masses
+which flapped like two wings. Her smiling face, parted lips, dilated
+nostrils, her half-closed eyes proclaimed all her delight in her
+swift course through the fresh air of the morning. Her neck, long and
+flexible, rose from a blouse of gray linen, closed by a kerchief of
+orange silk. She looked to be fifteen or sixteen years old.
+
+The wood came to an end. A valley lay before her, sunk between two
+walls of rock and turning off abruptly. Dorothy stopped short. She had
+reached her goal.
+
+Facing her, on a pedestal of granite, cleanly cut down, and not more
+than a hundred feet in diameter, rose the main building of a château,
+which though it lacked grandeur of style itself, yet drew from its
+position and the impressive nature of its construction an air of being
+a seigniorial residence. To the right and left the valley, narrowed to
+two ravines, appeared to envelop it like an old-time moat. But in front
+of Dorothy the full breadth of the valley formed a slightly undulating
+glacis, strewn with boulders and traversed by hedges of briar, which
+ended at the foot of the almost vertical cliff of the granite pedestal.
+
+"A quarter to five striking," murmured the young girl. "Saint-Quentin
+won't be long."
+
+She crouched down behind the enormous trunk of an uprooted tree and
+watched with unwinking eyes the line of demarcation between the château
+itself and its rocky base.
+
+A narrow shelf of rock lengthened this line, running below the windows
+of the ground floor; and there was a spot in this exiguous cornice at
+which there came to an end a slanting fissure in the face of the cliff,
+very narrow, something of the nature of a crevice in the face of a wall.
+
+The evening before, during their walk, Saint-Quentin had said, his
+finger pointing at the fissure:
+
+"Those people believe themselves to be perfectly secure; and yet
+nothing could be easier than to haul one's self up along that crack
+to one of the windows. ... Look; there's one which is actually
+half-open ... the window of some pantry."
+
+Dorothy had no doubt whatever that the idea of climbing the granite
+pedestal had gripped Saint-Quentin and that that very night he had
+stolen away to attempt it. What had become of him after the attempt?
+Had there not been some one in the room he had entered? Knowing nothing
+of the place he was exploring nor of the dwellers in it, had he not let
+himself be taken? Or was he merely waiting for the break of day?
+
+She was greatly troubled. For all that she could see no sign of a path
+along the ravine, some countryman might come along at the very moment
+at which Saint-Quentin took the risk of making his descent, a far more
+difficult business than climbing up.
+
+Of a sudden she quivered. One might have said that in thinking of this
+mischance she had brought it on them. She heard the sound of heavy
+footfalls coming along the ravine and making for its main entrance.
+She buried herself among the roots of the tree and they hid her. A man
+came in sight. He was wearing a long blouse; his face was encircled
+and hidden by a gray muffler; old, furred gloves covered his hands; he
+carried a gun on his arm, a mattock over his shoulder.
+
+She thought that he must be a sportsman, or rather a poacher, for he
+walked with an uneasy air, looking carefully about him, like one who
+feared to be seen, and who was carefully changing his usual bearing.
+But he came to a standstill near the wall fifty or sixty yards from
+the spot at which Saint-Quentin had made the ascent, and studied the
+ground, turning over some flat stones and bending down over them.
+
+At last he made up his mind and seizing one of these slabs by its
+narrower end, he raised it and set it up on end in such a manner that
+it was balanced after the fashion of a cromlech. So doing he uncovered
+a hole which had been hollowed out in the center of the deep imprint
+left by the slab. Then he took his mattock and set about enlarging it,
+removing the earth very quietly, evidently taking great care to make no
+noise.
+
+A few minutes more slipped away. Then the inevitable event which
+Dorothy had at once desired and feared took place. The window of the
+château, through which Saint-Quentin had climbed the night before,
+opened; and there appeared a long body clad in a long black coat,
+its head covered with a high hat, which, even at that distance, were
+plainly shiny, dirty, and patched.
+
+Squeezed flat against the wall, Saint-Quentin lowered himself from the
+window and succeeded in setting his two feet on the rocky shelf. On
+the instant Dorothy, who was at the back of the man in the blouse, was
+on the point of rising and making a warning signal to her comrade. The
+movement was useless. The man had perceived what looked to be a black
+devil clinging to the face of the cliff, and dropping his mattock, he
+slipped into the hole.
+
+For his part, Saint-Quentin, absorbed in his job of getting down, was
+paying no attention to what was going on below him, and could only have
+seen it by turning round, which was practically impossible. Uncoiling a
+rope, which he had, without doubt, picked up in the mansion, he ran it
+round a pillar of the balcony of the window in such a fashion that the
+two ends hung down the face of the cliff an equal distance. With the
+help of this double rope the descent presented no difficulty.
+
+Without losing a second, Dorothy, uneasy at being no longer able to
+see the man in a blouse, sprang from her hiding-place and raced to the
+hole. As she got a view of it, she smothered a cry. At the bottom of
+the hole, as at the bottom of a trench, the man, resting the barrel of
+his gun on the rampart of earth he had thrown up, was about to take
+deliberate aim at the unconscious climber.
+
+Call out? Warn Saint-Quentin? That was to precipitate the event,
+to make her presence known and find herself engaged in an unequal
+struggle with an armed adversary. But do something she must. Up there
+Saint-Quentin was availing himself of the fissure in the face of the
+cliff, for all the world as if he were descending the shaft of a
+chimney. The whole of him stuck out, a black and lean silhouette. His
+high hat had been crushed down, concertina fashion, right on to his
+ears.
+
+The man set the butt of his gun against his shoulder and took aim.
+Dorothy leapt forward and flung herself at the stone which stood up
+behind him and with the impetus of her spring and all her weight behind
+her outstretched hands, shoved it. It was badly balanced, gave at the
+shock, and toppled over, closing the excavation like a trap-door of
+stone, crushing the gun, and imprisoning the man in the blouse. The
+young girl got just a glimpse of his head as it bent and his shoulders
+as they were thrust down into the hole.
+
+She thought that the attack was only postponed, that the enemy would
+lose no time in getting out of his grave, and dashed at full speed to
+the bottom of the fissure at which she arrived at the same time as
+Saint-Quentin.
+
+"Quick ... quick!" she cried. "We must bolt!"
+
+In a flurry, he dragged down the rope by one of the ends, mumbling as
+he did so:
+
+"What's up? What d'you want? How did you know I was here?"
+
+She gripped his arm and tugged at it.
+
+"Bolt, idiot!... They've seen you!... They were going to take a shot at
+you!... Quick! They'll be after us!"
+
+"What's that? Be after us? Who?"
+
+"A queer-looking beggar disguised as a peasant. He's in a hole over
+yonder. He was going to shoot you like a partridge when I tumbled the
+slab on to the top of him."
+
+"But----"
+
+"Do as I tell you, idiot! And bring the rope with you. You mustn't
+leave any traces!"
+
+She turned and bolted; he followed her. They reached the end of the
+valley before the slab was raised, and without exchanging a word took
+cover in the wood.
+
+Twenty minutes later they entered the stream and did not leave it till
+they could emerge on to a bank of pebbles on which their feet could
+leave no print.
+
+Saint-Quentin was off again like an arrow; but Dorothy stopped short,
+suddenly shaken by a spasm of laughter which bent her double.
+
+"What is it?" he said. "What's the matter with you?"
+
+She could not answer. She was convulsed, her hands pressed against her
+ribs, her face scarlet, her teeth, small, regular, whitely-gleaming
+teeth, bared. At last she managed to stutter:
+
+"You--you--your high--high hat!... That b-b-black coat!... Your
+b-b-bare feet!... It's t-t-too funny!... Where did you sneak that
+disguise from?... Goodness! What a sight you are!"
+
+Her laughter rang out, young and fresh, on the silence in which the
+leaves were fluttering. Facing her, Saint-Quentin, an awkward stripling
+who had outgrown his strength, with his face too pale, his hair too
+fair, his ears sticking out, but with admirable, very kindly black
+eyes, gazed, smiling, at the young girl, delighted by this diversion
+which seemed to be turning aside from him the outburst of wrath he was
+expecting.
+
+Of a sudden, indeed, she fell upon him, attacking him with thumps
+and reproaches, but in a half-hearted fashion, with little bursts of
+laughter, which robbed the chastisement of its sting.
+
+"Wretch and rogue! You've been stealing again, have you? You're no
+longer satisfied with your salary as acrobat, aren't you, my fine
+fellow? You must still prig money or jewels to keep yourself in high
+hats, must you? What have you got, looter? Eh? Tell me!"
+
+By dint of striking and laughing she had soothed her righteous
+indignation. She set out again and Saint-Quentin, thoroughly abashed,
+stammered:
+
+"Tell you? What's the good of telling you? You've guessed everything,
+as usual.... As a matter of fact I did get in through that window,
+last evening.... It was a pantry at the end of a corridor which led
+to the ground-floor rooms.... Not a soul about.... The family was at
+dinner.... A servant's staircase led me up into another passage, which
+ran round the house, with the doors of all the rooms opening into it.
+I went through them all. Nothing--that is to say, pictures and other
+things too big to carry away. Then I hid myself in a closet, from which
+I could see into a little sitting-room next to the prettiest bedroom.
+They danced till late; then came upstairs ... fashionable people.... I
+saw them through a peep-hole in the door ... the ladies décolletées,
+the gentlemen in evening dress.... At last one of the ladies went into
+the boudoir. She put her jewels into a jewel-box and the jewel-box into
+a small safe, saying out loud as she opened it the three letters of the
+combination of the lock, R.O.B.... So that, when she went to bed, all
+I had to do was to make use of them.... After that.... I waited for
+daylight.... I wasn't going to chance stumbling about in the dark."
+
+"Let's see what you've got," she commanded.
+
+He opened his hand and disclosed on the palm of it two earrings, set
+with sapphires. She took them and looked at them. Her face changed; her
+eyes sparkled; she murmured in quite a different voice:
+
+"How lovely they are, sapphires!... The sky is sometimes like that--at
+night ... that dark blue, full of light...."
+
+At the moment they were crossing a piece of land on which stood a
+large scarecrow, simply clad in a pair of trousers. On one of the
+cross-sticks which served it for arms hung a jacket. It was the jacket
+of Saint-Quentin. He had hung it there the evening before, and in order
+to render himself unrecognizable, had borrowed the scarecrow's long
+coat and high hat. He took off that long coat, buttoned it over the
+plaster bosom of the scarecrow, and replaced the hat. Then he slipped
+on his jacket and rejoined Dorothy.
+
+She was still looking at the sapphires with an air of admiration.
+
+He bent over them and said: "Keep them, Dorothy. You know quite well
+that I'm not really a thief and that I only got them for you ... that
+you might have the pleasure of looking at them and touching them....
+It often goes to my heart to see you running about in that beggarly
+get-up!... To think of you dancing on the tight-rope! You who ought to
+live in luxury!... Ah, to think of all I'd do for you, if you'd let me!"
+
+She raised her head, looked into his eyes, and said: "Would you really
+do anything for me?"
+
+"Anything, Dorothy."
+
+"Well, then, be honest, Saint-Quentin."
+
+They set out again; and the young girl continued:
+
+"Be honest, Saint-Quentin. That's all I ask of you. You and the
+other boys of the caravan, I've adopted you because, like me, you're
+war-orphans, and for the last two years we have wandered together
+along the high roads, happy rather than miserable, getting our fun,
+and on the whole, eating when we're hungry. But we must come to an
+understanding. I only like what is clean and straight and as clear as a
+ray of sunlight. Are you like me? This is the third time you've stolen
+to give me pleasure. Is this the last time? If it is, I pardon it. If
+it isn't, it's 'good-bye.'"
+
+She spoke very seriously, emphasizing each phrase by a toss of the head
+which made the two wings of her hair flap.
+
+Overwhelmed, Saint-Quentin said imploringly:
+
+"Don't you want to have anything more to do with me?"
+
+"Yes. But swear you won't do it again."
+
+"I swear I won't."
+
+"Then we won't say anything more about it. I feel that you mean what
+you say. Take back these jewels. You can hide them in the big basket
+under the caravan. Next week you will send them back by post. It's the
+Château de Chagny, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, and I saw the lady's name on one of her band-boxes. She's the
+Comtesse de Chagny."
+
+They went on hand in hand. Twice they hid themselves to avoid meeting
+peasants, and at last, after several detours, they reached the
+neighborhood of the caravan.
+
+"Listen," said Saint-Quentin, pausing to listen himself. "Yes. That's
+what it is--Castor and Pollux fighting as usual, the rascals!"
+
+He dashed towards the sound.
+
+"Saint-Quentin!" cried the young girl. "I forbid you to hit them!"
+
+"You hit them often enough!"
+
+"Yes. But they like me to hit them."
+
+At the approach of Saint-Quentin, the two boys, who were fighting a
+duel with wooden swords, turned from one another to face the common
+enemy, howling:
+
+"Dorothy! Mummy Dorothy! Stop Saint-Quentin! He's a beast! Help!"
+
+There followed a distribution of cuffs, bursts of laughter, and hugs.
+
+"Dorothy, it's my turn to be hugged!"
+
+"Dorothy, it's my turn to be smacked!"
+
+But the young girl said in a scolding voice:
+
+"And the Captain? I'm sure you've gone and woke him up!"
+
+"The Captain? He's sleeping like a sapper," declared Pollux. "Just
+listen to his snoring!"
+
+By the side of the road the two urchins had lit a fire of wood. The
+pot, suspended from an iron tripod, was boiling. The four of them ate a
+steaming thick soup, bread and cheese, and drank a cup of coffee.
+
+Dorothy did not budge from her stool. Her three companions would not
+have permitted it. It was rather which of the three should rise to
+serve her, all of them attentive to her wants, eager, jealous of one
+another, even aggressive towards one another. The battles of Castor
+and Pollux were always started by the fact that she had shown favor to
+one or the other. The two urchins, stout and chubby, dressed alike in
+pants, a shirt, and jacket, when one least expected it and for all that
+they were as fond of one another as brothers, fell upon one another
+with ferocious violence, because the young girl had spoken too kindly
+to one, or delighted the other with a too affectionate look.
+
+As for Saint-Quentin, he cordially detested them. When Dorothy fondled
+them, he could have cheerfully wrung their necks. Never would she hug
+him. He had to content himself with good comradeship, trusting and
+affectionate, which only showed itself in a friendly hand-shake or a
+pleasant smile. The stripling delighted in them as the only reward
+which a poor devil like him could possibly deserve. Saint-Quentin was
+one of those who love with selfless devotion.
+
+"The arithmetic lesson now," was Dorothy's order. "And you,
+Saint-Quentin, go to sleep for an hour on the box."
+
+Castor brought his arithmetic. Pollux displayed his copy-book. The
+arithmetic lesson was followed by a lecture delivered by Dorothy on the
+Merovingian kings, then by a lecture on astronomy.
+
+The two children listened with almost impassioned attention; and
+Saint-Quentin on the box took good care not to go to sleep. In
+teaching, Dorothy gave full play to her lively fancy in a fashion which
+diverted her pupils and never allowed them to grow weary. She had an
+air of learning herself whatever she chanced to be teaching. And her
+discourse, delivered in a very gentle voice, revealed a considerable
+knowledge and understanding and the suppleness of a practical
+intelligence.
+
+At ten o'clock the young girl gave the order to harness the horse. The
+journey to the next town was a long one; and they had to arrive in
+time to secure the best place in front of the town-hall.
+
+"And the Captain? He hasn't had breakfast!" cried Castor.
+
+"All the better," said she. "The Captain always eats too much. It will
+give his stomach a rest. Besides if any one wakes him he's always in a
+frightful temper. Let him sleep on."
+
+They set out. The caravan moved along at the gentle pace of One-eyed
+Magpie, a lean old mare, but still strong and willing. They called
+her "One-eyed Magpie" because she had a piebald coat and had lost an
+eye. Heavy, perched on two high wheels, rocking, jingling like old
+iron, loaded with boxes, pots and pans, steps, barrels, and ropes, the
+caravan had recently been repainted. On both sides it bore the pompous
+inscription, "Dorothy's Circus, Manager's Carriage," which led one
+to believe that a file of wagons and vehicles was following at some
+distance with the staff, the properties, the baggage, and the wild
+beasts.
+
+Saint-Quentin, whip in hand, walked at the head of the caravan.
+Dorothy, with the two small boys at her side, gathered flowers from the
+banks, sang choruses of marching songs with them, or told them stories.
+But at the end of half an hour, in the middle of some cross-roads, she
+gave the order: "Halt!"
+
+"What is it?" asked Saint-Quentin, seeing that she was reading the
+directions on a sign-post.
+
+"Look," she said.
+
+"There's no need to look. It's straight on. I looked it up on our map."
+
+"Look," she repeated. "Chagny. A mile and a half."
+
+"Quite so. It's the village of our château of yesterday. Only to get to
+it we made a short cut through the woods."
+
+"Chagny. A mile and a half. Château de Roborey."
+
+She appeared to be troubled and in a low voice she murmured again:
+
+"Roborey--Roborey."
+
+"Doubtless that's the proper name of the château," hazarded
+Saint-Quentin. "What difference can it make to you?"
+
+"None--none."
+
+"But you look as if it made no end of a difference."
+
+"No. It's just a coincidence."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"With regard to the name of Roborey----"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, it's a word which was impressed on my memory ... a word which
+was uttered in circumstances----"
+
+"What circumstances, Dorothy?"
+
+She explained slowly with a thoughtful air:
+
+"Think a minute, Saint-Quentin. I told you that my father died of his
+wounds, at the beginning of the war, in a hospital near Chartres. I had
+been summoned; but I did not arrive in time.... But two wounded men,
+who occupied the beds next to his in the ward, told me that during his
+last hours he never stopped repeating the same word again and again:
+'Roborey ... Roborey.' It came like a litany, unceasingly, and as if
+it weighed on his mind. Even when he was dying he still uttered the
+word: 'Roborey ... Roborey.'"
+
+"Yes," said Saint-Quentin. "I remember.... You did tell me about it."
+
+"Ever since then I have been asking myself what it meant and by what
+memory my poor father was obsessed at the time of his death. It was,
+apparently, more than an obsession ... it was a terror ... a dread.
+Why? I have never been able to find the explanation of it. So now you
+understand, Saint-Quentin, on seeing this name ... written there,
+staring me in the face ... on learning that there was a château of that
+name...."
+
+Saint-Quentin was frightened:
+
+"You never mean to go there, do you?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"It's madness, Dorothy!"
+
+The young girl was silent, considering. But Saint-Quentin felt sure
+that she had not abandoned this unprecedented design. He was seeking
+for arguments to dissuade her when Castor and Pollux came running up:
+
+"Three caravans are coming along!"
+
+They issued on the instant, one after the other in single file, from
+a sunken lane, which opened on to the cross-roads, and took the road
+to Roborey. They were an Aunt Sally, a Rifle-Range, and a Tortoise
+Merry-go-round. As he passed in front of Dorothy and Saint-Quentin, one
+of the men of the Rifle-Range called to them:
+
+"Are you coming along too?"
+
+"Where to?" said Dorothy.
+
+"To the château. There's a village fête in the grounds. Shall I keep a
+pitch for you?"
+
+"Right. And thanks very much," replied the young girl.
+
+The caravans went on their way.
+
+"What's the matter, Saint-Quentin?" said Dorothy.
+
+He was looking paler than usual.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" she repeated. "Your lips are twitching
+and you are turning green!"
+
+He stammered:
+
+"The p-p-police!"
+
+From the same sunken lane two horsemen came into the cross-roads, they
+rode on in front of the little party.
+
+"You see," said Dorothy, smiling, "they're not taking any notice of us."
+
+"No; but they're going to the château."
+
+"Of course they are. There's a fête there; and two policemen have to be
+present."
+
+"Always supposing that they haven't discovered the disappearance of the
+earrings and telephoned to the nearest police-station," he groaned.
+
+"It isn't likely. The lady will only discover it to-night, when she
+dresses for dinner."
+
+"All the same, don't let's go there," implored the unhappy stripling.
+"It's simply walking into the trap.... Besides, there's that man ...
+the man in the hole."
+
+"Oh, he dug his own grave," she said and laughed.
+
+"Suppose he's there.... Suppose he recognizes me?"
+
+"You were disguised. All they could do would be to arrest the scarecrow
+in the tall hat!"
+
+"And suppose they've already laid an information against me? If they
+searched us they'd find the earrings."
+
+"Drop them in some bushes in the park when we get there. I'll tell the
+people of the château their fortunes; and thanks to me, the lady will
+recover her earrings. Our fortunes are made."
+
+"But if by any chance----"
+
+"Rubbish! It would amuse me to go and see what is going on at the
+château which is named Roborey. So I'm going."
+
+"Yes; but I'm afraid ... afraid for you as well."
+
+"Then stay away."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"We'll chance it!" he said, and cracked his whip.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DOROTHY'S CIRCUS
+
+
+The château, situated at no great distance from Domfront, in the
+most rugged district of the picturesque department of the Orne, only
+received the name of Roborey in the course of the eighteenth century.
+Earlier it took its name of the Château de Chagny from the village
+which was grouped round it. The village green is in fact only a
+prolongation of the court-yard of the château. When the iron gates are
+open the two form an esplanade, constructed over the ancient moat, from
+which one descends on the right and left by steep slopes. The inner
+court-yard, circular and enclosed by two battlemented walls which run
+to the buildings of the château, is adorned by a fine old fountain of
+dolphins and sirens and a sun-dial set up on a rockery in the worst
+taste.
+
+Dorothy's Circus passed through the village, preceded by its band, that
+is to say that Castor and Pollux did their best to wreck their lungs
+in the effort to extract the largest possible number of false notes
+from two trumpets. Saint-Quentin had arrayed himself in a black satin
+doublet and carried over his shoulder the trident which so awes wild
+beasts, and a placard which announced that the performance would take
+place at three o'clock.
+
+Dorothy, standing upright on the roof of the caravan, directed One-eyed
+Magpie with four reins, wearing the majestic air of one driving a royal
+coach.
+
+Already a dozen vehicles stood on the esplanade; and round them the
+showmen were busily setting up their canvas tents and swings and
+wooden horses, etc. Dorothy's Circus made no such preparations. Its
+directress went to the mayor's office to have her license viséd, while
+Saint-Quentin unharnessed One-eyed Magpie, and the two musicians
+changed their profession and set about cooking the dinner.
+
+The Captain slept on.
+
+Towards noon the crowd began to flock in from all the neighboring
+villages. After the meal Saint-Quentin, Castor, and Pollux took a
+siesta beside the caravan. Dorothy again went off. She went down into
+the ravine, examined the slab over the excavation, went up out of
+it again, moved among the groups of peasants and strolled about the
+gardens, round the château, and everywhere else that one was allowed to
+go.
+
+"Well, how's your search getting on?" said Saint-Quentin when she
+returned to the caravan.
+
+She appeared thoughtful, and slowly she explained:
+
+"The château, which has been empty for a long while, belongs to the
+family of Chagny-Roborey, of which the last representative, Count
+Octave, a man about forty, married, twelve years ago, a very rich
+woman. After the war the Count and Countess restored and modernized
+the château. Yesterday evening they had a house-warming to which
+they invited a large party of guests who went away at the end of the
+evening. To-day they're having a kind of popular house-warming for the
+villagers."
+
+"And as regards this name of Roborey, have you learned anything?"
+
+"Nothing. I'm still quite ignorant why my father uttered it."
+
+"So that we can get away directly after the performance," said
+Saint-Quentin who was very eager to depart.
+
+"I don't know.... We'll see.... I've found out some rather queer
+things."
+
+"Have they anything to do with your father?"
+
+"No," she said with some hesitation. "Nothing to do with him.
+Nevertheless I should like to look more closely into the matter. When
+there is darkness anywhere, there's no knowing what it may hide.... I
+should like...."
+
+She remained silent for a long time. At last she went on in a serious
+tone, looking straight into Saint-Quentin's face:
+
+"Listen: you have confidence in me, haven't you? You know that I'm
+quite sensible at bottom ... and very prudent. You know that I have a
+certain amount of intuition ... and good eyes that see a little more
+than most people see.... Well, I've got a strong feeling that I ought
+to remain here."
+
+"Because of the name of Roborey?"
+
+"Because of that, and for other reasons, which will compel me
+perhaps, according to circumstances, to undertake unexpected
+enterprises ... dangerous ones. At that moment, Saint-Quentin, you must
+follow me--boldly."
+
+"Go on, Dorothy. Tell me what it is exactly."
+
+"Nothing.... Nothing definite at present.... One word, however. The man
+who was aiming at you this morning, the man in the blouse, is here."
+
+"Never! He's here, do you say? You've seen him? With the policemen?"
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Not yet. But that may happen. Where have you put those earrings?"
+
+"At the bottom of the basket, in a little card-board box with a rubber
+ring round it."
+
+"Good. As soon as the performance is over, stick them in that clump of
+rhododendrons between the gates and the coach-house."
+
+"Have they found out that they've disappeared?"
+
+"Not yet," said Dorothy. "From the things you told me I believe that
+the little safe is in the boudoir of the Countess. I heard some of the
+maids talking; and nothing was said about any robbery. They'd have been
+full of it." She added: "Look! there are some of the people from the
+château in front of the shooting-gallery. Is it that pretty fair lady
+with the grand air?"
+
+"Yes. I recognize her."
+
+"An extremely kind-hearted woman, according to what the maids said, and
+generous, always ready to listen to the unfortunate. The people about
+her are very fond of her ... much fonder of her than they are of her
+husband, who, it appears, is not at all easy to get on with."
+
+"Which of them is he? There are three men there."
+
+"The biggest ... the man in the gray suit ... with his stomach sticking
+out with importance. Look; he has taken a rifle. The two on either
+side of the Countess are distant relations. The tall one with the
+grizzled beard which runs up to his tortoise-shell spectacles, has
+been at the château a month. The other more sallow one, in a velveteen
+shooting-coat and gaiters, arrived yesterday."
+
+"But they look as if they knew you, both of them."
+
+"Yes. We've already spoken to one another. The bearded nobleman was
+even quite attentive."
+
+Saint-Quentin made an indignant movement. She checked him at once.
+
+"Keep calm, Saint-Quentin. And let's go closer to them. The battle
+begins."
+
+The crowd was thronging round the back of the tent to watch the
+exploits of the owner of the château, whose skill was well known.
+The dozen bullets which he fired made a ring round the center of the
+target; and there was a burst of applause.
+
+"No, no!" he protested modestly. "It's bad. Not a single bull's-eye."
+
+"Want of practice," said a voice near him.
+
+Dorothy had slipped into the front ranks of the throng; and she had
+said it in the quiet tone of a connoisseur. The spectators laughed. The
+bearded gentleman presented her to the Count and Countess.
+
+"Mademoiselle Dorothy, the directress of the circus."
+
+"Is it as circus directress that mademoiselle judges a target or as an
+expert?" said the Count jocosely.
+
+"As an expert."
+
+"Ah, mademoiselle also shoots?"
+
+"Now and then."
+
+"Jaguars?"
+
+"No. Pipe-bowls."
+
+"And mademoiselle does not miss her aim?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Provided, of course, that she has a first-class weapon?"
+
+"Oh, no. A good shot can use any kind of weapon that comes to hand ...
+even an old-fashioned contraption like this."
+
+She gripped the butt of an old pistol, provided herself with six
+cartridges, and aimed at the card-board target cut out by the Count.
+
+The first shot was a bull's-eye. The second cut the black circle. The
+third was a bull's-eye.
+
+The Count was amazed.
+
+"It's marvelous.... She doesn't even take the trouble to aim. What do
+you say to that, d'Estreicher?"
+
+The bearded nobleman, as Dorothy called him, cried enthusiastically:
+
+"Unheard of! Marvelous! You could make a fortune, Mademoiselle!"
+
+Without answering, with the three remaining bullets she broke two
+pipe-bowls and shattered an empty egg-shell that was dancing on the top
+of a jet of water.
+
+And thereupon, pushing aside her admirers, and addressing the
+astonished crowd, she made the announcement:
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to inform you that the
+performance of Dorothy's Circus is about to take place. After
+exhibitions of marksmanship, choregraphic displays, then feats of
+strength and skill and tumbling, on foot, on horseback, on the earth
+and in the air. Fireworks, regattas, motor races, bull-fights, train
+hold-ups, all will be on view there. It is about to begin, ladies and
+gentlemen."
+
+From that moment Dorothy was all movement, liveliness, and gayety.
+Saint-Quentin had marked off a sufficiently large circle, in front of
+the door of the caravan, with a rope supported by stakes. Round this
+arena, in which chairs were reserved for the people of the château, the
+spectators were closely packed together on benches and flights of steps
+and on anything they could lay their hands on.
+
+And Dorothy danced. First of all on a rope, stretched between two
+posts. She bounced like a shuttlecock which the battledore catches and
+drives yet higher; or again she lay down and balanced herself on the
+rope as on a hammock, walked backwards and forwards, turned and saluted
+right and left; then leapt to the earth and began to dance.
+
+An extraordinary mixture of all the dances, in which nothing seemed
+studied or purposed, in which all the movements and attitudes appeared
+unconscious and to spring from a series of inspirations of the moment.
+By turns she was the London dancing-girl, the Spanish dancer with
+her castanets, the Russian who bounds and twirls, or, in the arms of
+Saint-Quentin, a barbaric creature dancing a languorous tango.
+
+And every time all that she needed was just a movement, the slightest
+movement, which changed the hang of her shawl, or the way her hair
+was arranged, to become from head to foot a Spanish, or Russian, or
+English, or Argentine girl. And all the while she was an incomparable
+vision of grace and charm, of harmonious and healthy youth, of pleasure
+and modesty, of extreme but measured joy.
+
+Castor and Pollux, bent over an old drum, beat with their fingers
+a muffled, rhythmical accompaniment. Speechless and motionless the
+spectators gazed and admired, spellbound by such a wealth of fantasy
+and the multitude of images which passed before their eyes. At the
+very moment when they were regarding her as a guttersnipe turning
+cartwheels, she suddenly appeared to them in the guise of a lady with a
+long train, flirting her fan and dancing the minuet. Was she a child or
+a woman? Was she under fifteen or over twenty?
+
+She cut short the clamor of applause which burst forth when she came to
+a sudden stop, by springing on to the roof of the caravan, and crying,
+with an imperious gesture:
+
+"Silence! The Captain is waking up!"
+
+There was, behind the box, a long narrow basket, in the shape of a
+closed sentry-box. Raising it by one end, she half opened the cover and
+cried:
+
+"Now, Captain Montfaucon, you've had a good sleep, haven't you? Come
+now, Captain, we're a bit behind-hand with our exercises. Make up for
+it, Captain!"
+
+She opened the top of the basket wide and disclosed in a kind of
+cradle, very comfortable, a little boy of seven or eight, with golden
+curls and red cheeks, who yawned prodigiously. Only half awake, he
+stretched out his hands to Dorothy who clasped him to her bosom and
+kissed him very tenderly.
+
+"Baron Saint-Quentin," she called out. "Catch hold of the Captain.
+Is his bread and jam ready? Captain Montfaucon will continue the
+performance by going through his drill."
+
+Captain Montfaucon was the comedian of the troupe. Dressed in an old
+American uniform, his tunic dragged along the ground, and his corkscrew
+trousers had their bottoms rolled up as high as his knees. This made a
+costume so hampering that he could not walk ten steps without falling
+full length. Captain Montfaucon provided the comedy by this unbroken
+series of falls and the impressive air with which he picked himself up
+again. When, furnished with a whip, his other hand useless by reason of
+the slice of bread and jam it held, his cheeks smeared with jam, he put
+the unbridled One-eyed Magpie through his performance, there was one
+continuous roar of laughter.
+
+"Mark time!" he ordered. "Right-about-turn!... Attention, One-eye'
+Magpie!"--he could never be induced to say "One-eyed"--"And now the
+goose-step. Good, One-eye' Magpie.... Perfect!"
+
+One-eyed Magpie, promoted to the rank of circus horse, trotted round in
+a circle without taking the slightest notice of the captain's orders,
+who, for his part, stumbling, falling, picking himself up, recovering
+his slice of bread and jam, did not bother for a moment about whether
+he was obeyed or not. It was so funny, the phlegm of the little man,
+and the undeviating course of the beast, that Dorothy herself was
+forced to laugh with a laughter that re-doubled the gayety of the
+spectators. They saw that the young girl, in spite of the fact that the
+performance was undoubtedly repeated every day, always took the same
+delight in it.
+
+"Excellent, Captain," she cried to encourage him. "Splendid! And now,
+captain, we'll act 'The Gipsy's Kidnaping,' a drama in a brace of
+shakes. Baron Saint-Quentin, you'll be the scoundrelly kidnaper."
+
+Uttering frightful howls, the scoundrelly kidnaper seized her and set
+her on One-eyed Magpie, bound her on her, and jumped up behind her.
+Under the double burden the mare staggered slowly off, while Baron
+Saint-Quentin yelled:
+
+"Gallop! Hell for leather!"
+
+The Captain quietly put a cap on a toy gun and aimed at the scoundrelly
+kidnaper.
+
+The cap cracked; Saint-Quentin fell off; and in a transport of
+gratitude the rescued gypsy covered her deliverer with kisses.
+
+There were other scenes in which Castor and Pollux took part. All were
+carried through with the same brisk liveliness. All were caricatures,
+really humorous, of what diverts or charms us, and revealed a lively
+imagination, powers of observation of the first order, a keen sense of
+the picturesque and the ridiculous.
+
+"Captain Montfaucon, take a bag and make a collection. Castor and
+Pollux, a roll of the drum to imitate the sound of falling water. Baron
+Saint-Quentin, beware of pickpockets!"
+
+The Captain dragged through the crowd an enormous bag in which were
+engulfed pennies and dirty notes; and from the top of the caravan
+Dorothy delivered her farewell address:
+
+"Very many thanks, agriculturists and towns-people! It is with regret
+that we leave this generous locality. But before we depart we take
+this opportunity of informing you that Mademoiselle Dorothy (she
+saluted) is not only the directress of a circus and a first-class
+performer. Mademoiselle Dorothy (she saluted) will also demonstrate
+her extraordinary excellence in the sphere of clairvoyance and psychic
+powers. The lines of the hand, the cards, coffee grounds, handwriting,
+and astrology have no secrets for her. She dissipates the darkness.
+She solves enigmas. With her magic ring she makes invisible springs
+burst forth, and above all, she discovers in the most unfathomable
+places, under the stones of old castles, and in the depths of forgotten
+dungeons, fantastic treasures whose existence no one suspected. A word
+to the wise is enough. I have the honor to thank you."
+
+She descended quickly. The three boys were packing up the properties.
+
+Saint-Quentin came to her.
+
+"We hook it, don't we, straight away? Those policemen have kept an eye
+on me the whole time."
+
+She replied:
+
+"Then you didn't hear the end of my speech?"
+
+"What about it?"
+
+"What about it? Why, the consultations are going to begin--the
+superlucid clairvoyant Dorothy. Look, I here come some clients ...
+the bearded nobleman and the gentleman in velveteen ... I like the
+gentleman in velveteen. He is very polite; and there's no side about
+his fawn-colored gaiters--the complete gentleman-farmer."
+
+The bearded nobleman was beside himself. He loaded the young girl with
+extravagant compliments, looking at her the while in an uncommonly
+equivocal fashion. He introduced himself as "Maxime d'Estreicher,"
+introduced his companion as "Raoul Davernoie," and finally, on behalf
+of the Countess Octave, invited her to come to tea in the château.
+
+"Alone?" she asked.
+
+"Certainly not," protested Raoul Davernoie with a courteous bow. "Our
+cousin is anxious to congratulate all your comrades. Will you come,
+mademoiselle?"
+
+Dorothy accepted. Just a moment to change her frock, and she would come
+to the château.
+
+"No, no; no toilet!" cried d'Estreicher. "Come as you are.... You look
+perfectly charming in that slightly scanty costume. How pretty you are
+like that!"
+
+Dorothy flushed and said dryly:
+
+"No compliments, please."
+
+"It isn't a compliment, mademoiselle," he said a trifle ironically.
+"It's the natural homage one pays to beauty."
+
+He went off, taking Raoul Davernoie with him.
+
+"Saint-Quentin," murmured Dorothy, looking after them. "Keep an eye on
+that gentleman."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"He's the man in the blouse who nearly brought you down this morning."
+
+Saint-Quentin staggered as if he had received the charge of shot.
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Very nearly. He has the same way of walking, dragging his right leg a
+little."
+
+He muttered:
+
+"He has recognized me!"
+
+"I think so. When he saw you jumping about during the performance it
+recalled to his mind the black devil performing acrobatic feats against
+the face of the cliff. And it was only a step from you to me who
+shoved the slab over on to his head. I read it all in his eyes and his
+attitude towards me this afternoon--just in his manner of speaking to
+me. There was a touch of mockery in it."
+
+Saint-Quentin lost his temper:
+
+"And we aren't hurrying off at once! You dare stay?"
+
+"I dare."
+
+"But that man?"
+
+"He doesn't know that I penetrated his disguise.... And as long as he
+doesn't know----"
+
+"You mean that your intention is?"
+
+"Perfectly simple--to tell them their fortunes, amuse them, and puzzle
+them."
+
+"But what's your object?"
+
+"I want to make them talk in their turn."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"What I want to know."
+
+"What do you want to know?"
+
+"That's what I don't know. It's for them to teach me."
+
+"And suppose they discover the robbery? Suppose they cross-examine us?"
+
+"Saint-Quentin, take the Captain's wooden gun, mount guard in front of
+the caravan, and when the policemen approach, shoot them down."
+
+When she had made herself tidy, she took Saint-Quentin with her to the
+château and on the way made him repeat all the details of his nocturnal
+expedition. Behind them came Castor and Pollux, then the Captain,
+who dragged after him by a string a little toy cart loaded with tiny
+packages.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They entertained them in the large drawing-room of the château. The
+Countess, who indeed was, as Dorothy had said, an agreeable and amiable
+woman, and of a seductive prettiness, stuffed the children with
+dainties, and was wholly charming to the young girl. For her part,
+Dorothy seemed quite as much at her ease with her hosts as she had
+been on the top of the caravan. She had merely hidden her short skirt
+and bodice under a large black shawl, drawn in at the waist by a belt.
+The ease of her manner, her cultivated intonation, her correct speech,
+to which now and then a slang word gave a certain spiciness, her
+quickness, and the intelligent expression of her brilliant eyes amazed
+the Countess and charmed the three men.
+
+"Mademoiselle," d'Estreicher exclaimed, "if you can foretell the
+future, I can assure you that I too can clearly foresee it, and that
+certain fortune awaits you. Ah, if you would put yourself in my hands
+and let me direct your career in Paris! I am in touch with all the
+worlds and I can guarantee your success."
+
+She tossed her head:
+
+"I don't need any one."
+
+"Mademoiselle," said he, "confess that you do not find me congenial."
+
+"Neither congenial nor uncongenial. I don't really know you."
+
+"If you really knew me, you'd have confidence in me."
+
+"I don't think so," she said.
+
+"Why?"
+
+She took his hand, turned it over, bent over the open palm, and as she
+examined it said slowly:
+
+"Dissipation.... Greedy for money.... Conscienceless...."
+
+"But I protest, mademoiselle! Conscienceless? I? I who am full of
+scruples."
+
+"Your hand says the opposite, monsieur."
+
+"Does it also say that I have no luck?"
+
+"None at all."
+
+"What? Shan't I ever be rich?"
+
+"I fear not."
+
+"Confound it.... And what about my death? Is it a long way off?"
+
+"Not very."
+
+"A painful death?"
+
+"A matter of seconds."
+
+"An accident, then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What kind of accident?"
+
+She pointed with her finger:
+
+"Look here--at the base of the fore-finger."
+
+"What is there?"
+
+"The gallows."
+
+There was an outburst of laughter. D'Estreicher was enchanted. Count
+Octave clapped his hands.
+
+"Bravo, mademoiselle, the gallows for this old libertine; it must be
+that you have the gift of second sight. So I shall not hesitate...."
+
+He consulted his wife with a look of inquiry and continued:
+
+"So I shall not hesitate to tell you...."
+
+"To tell me," finished Dorothy mischievously, "the reasons for which
+you invited me to tea."
+
+The Count protested:
+
+"Not at all, mademoiselle. We invited you to tea solely for the
+pleasure of becoming acquainted with you."
+
+"And perhaps a little from the desire to appeal to my skill as a
+sorceress."
+
+The Countess Octave interposed:
+
+"Ah, well, yes, mademoiselle. Your final announcement excited our
+curiosity. Moreover, I will confess that we haven't much belief in
+things of this kind and that it is rather out of curiosity that we
+should like to ask you certain questions."
+
+"If you have no faith in my poor skill, madame, we'll let that pass,
+and all the same I'll manage to gratify your curiosity."
+
+"By what means?"
+
+"Merely by reflecting on your words."
+
+"What?" said the Countess. "No magnetic passes? No hypnotic sleep?"
+
+"No, madame--at least not for the present. Later on we'll see."
+
+Only keeping Saint-Quentin with her, she told the children to go and
+play in the garden. Then she sat down and said:
+
+"I'm listening, madame."
+
+"Just like that? Perfectly simply?"
+
+"Perfectly simply."
+
+"Well, then, mademoiselle----"
+
+The Countess spoke in a tone the carelessness of which was not perhaps
+absolutely sincere.
+
+"Well, then, mademoiselle, you spoke of forgotten dungeons and ancient
+stones and hidden treasures. Now, the Château de Roborey is several
+centuries old. It has undoubtedly been the scene of adventures and
+dramas; and it would amuse us to know whether any of its inhabitants
+have by any chance left in some out-of-way corner one of these fabulous
+treasures of which you spoke."
+
+Dorothy kept silent for some little time. Then she said:
+
+"I always answer with all the greater precision if full confidence is
+placed in me. If there are any reservations, if the question is not put
+as it ought to be...."
+
+"What reservations? I assure you, mademoiselle----"
+
+The young girl broke in firmly:
+
+"You asked me the question, madame, as if you were giving way to a
+sudden curiosity, which did not rest, so to speak, on any real base.
+Now you know as well as I do that excavations have been made in the
+château."
+
+"That's very possible," said Count Octave. "But if they were, it must
+have been dozens of years ago, in the time of my father or grandfather."
+
+"There are recent excavations," Dorothy asserted.
+
+"But we have only been living in the château a month!"
+
+"It isn't a matter of a month, but of some days ... of some hours...."
+
+The Countess declared with animation:
+
+"I assure you, mademoiselle, that we have not made researches of any
+kind."
+
+"Then the researches must have been made by some one else."
+
+"By whom? And under what conditions? And in what spot?"
+
+There was another silence. Then Dorothy went on:
+
+"You will excuse me, madame, if I have been going into matters which
+do not seem to be any business of mine. It's one of my faults.
+Saint-Quentin often says to me: 'Your craze for trespassing and
+ferreting about everywhere will lead people to say unpleasant things
+about you.' But it happened that, on arriving here, since we had to
+wait for the hour of the performance, I took a walk. I wandered right
+and left, looking at things, and in the end I made a certain number
+of observations which, as it seemed to me, are of some importance.
+Thus...."
+
+The Count and Countess drew nearer in their eagerness to hear her. She
+went on:
+
+"Thus, while I was admiring the beautiful old fountain in the court of
+honor, I was able to make sure that, all round it, holes have been dug
+under the marble basin which catches the water. Was the exploration
+profitable? I do not know. In any case, the earth has been put back
+into its place carefully, but not so well that one cannot see that the
+surface of the soil is raised."
+
+The Count and his guests looked at one another in astonishment.
+
+One of them objected:
+
+"Perhaps they've been repairing the basin ... or been putting in a
+waste pipe?"
+
+"No," said the Countess in a tone of decision. "No one has touched that
+fountain. And, doubtless, mademoiselle, you discovered other traces of
+the same kind of work."
+
+"Yes," said Dorothy. "Some one has been doing the same thing a little
+distance away--under the rockery, the pedestal on which the sun-dial
+stands. They have been boring across that rockery. An iron rod has been
+broken. It's there still."
+
+"But why?" cried the excited Countess. "Why these two spots rather than
+others? What are they searching for? What do they want? Have you any
+indication?"
+
+They had not long to wait for her answer; and Dorothy delivered it
+slowly, as if to make it quite clear that here was the essential point
+of her inquiry:
+
+"The motive of these investigations is engraved on the marble of the
+fountain. You can see it from here? Sirens surround a column surmounted
+by a capital. Isn't it so? Well, on one of the faces of the capital are
+some letters--almost effaced letters."
+
+"But we've never noticed them!" cried the Countess.
+
+"They are there," declared the young girl. "They are worn and hard
+to distinguish from the cracks in the marble. However, there is one
+word--a whole word--that one can reconstruct and read easily when once
+it has appeared to you."
+
+"What word?"
+
+"The word FORTUNA."
+
+The three syllables came long-drawn-out in a silence of stupefaction.
+The Count repeated them in a hushed voice, staring at Dorothy, who went
+on:
+
+"Yes; the word FORTUNA. And this word you find again also on
+the column of the sun-dial. Even yet more obliterated, to such a degree
+that one rather divines that it is there rather than actually reads
+it. But it certainly is there. Each letter is in its place. You cannot
+doubt it."
+
+The Count had not waited for her to finish speaking. Already he was
+out of the house; and through the open windows they saw him hurry to
+the fountain. He cast but one glance at it, passed in front of the
+sun-dial, and came quickly back.
+
+"Everything that mademoiselle says is the exact truth. They have dug at
+both spots ... and the word FORTUNA, which I saw at once, and
+which I had never seen before, gives the reason for their digging....
+They have searched ... and perhaps they have found."
+
+"No," the young girl asserted calmly.
+
+"Why do you say no? What do you know about it?"
+
+She hesitated. Her eyes met the eyes of d'Estreicher. He knew now,
+doubtless, that he was unmasked, and he began to understand what the
+young girl was driving at. But would she dare to go to extremities
+and join battle? And then what were the reasons for this unforeseen
+struggle?
+
+With an air of challenge he repeated the Countess's question:
+
+"Yes; why do you say that they have found nothing?"
+
+Boldly Dorothy accepted the challenge.
+
+"Because the digging has gone on. There is in the ravine, under the
+walls of the château, among the stones which have fallen from the
+cliff, an ancient slab, which certainly comes from some demolished
+structure. The word FORTUNA is to be deciphered on the base of
+it also. Let some one move that slab and they will discover a perfectly
+fresh excavation, and the tracks of feet muddled up by the hand."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+EXTRA-LUCID
+
+
+This last blow re-doubled the uneasiness of Count and Countess; and
+they took counsel in a low voice for a moment with their cousins
+d'Estreicher and Raoul Davernoie.
+
+Saint-Quentin on hearing Dorothy reveal the events in the ravine and
+the hiding-place of the man in the blouse had fallen back among the
+cushions of the great easy chair on which he was sitting. She was going
+mad! To set them on the trail of the man in the blouse was to set them
+on their own trail, his and Dorothy's. What madness!
+
+She, however, in the midst of all this excitement and anxiety remained
+wholly calm. She appeared to be following a quite definite course with
+her goal clearly in view, while the others, without her guidance,
+stumbled in a panic.
+
+"Mademoiselle," said the Countess, "your revelations have upset us
+considerably. They show how extraordinarily acute you are; and I cannot
+thank you enough for having given us this warning."
+
+"You have treated me so kindly, madame," she replied, "that I am only
+too delighted to have been of use to you."
+
+"Of immense use to us," agreed the Countess. "And I beg you to make the
+service complete."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By telling us what you know."
+
+"I don't know any more."
+
+"But perhaps you could learn more?"
+
+"In what way?"
+
+The Countess smiled:
+
+"By means of that skill in divination of which you were telling us a
+little while ago."
+
+"And in which you do not believe, madame."
+
+"But in which I'm quite ready to believe now."
+
+Dorothy bowed.
+
+"I'm quite willing.... But these are experiments which are not always
+successful."
+
+"Let's try."
+
+"Right. We'll try. But I must ask you not to expect too much."
+
+She took a handkerchief from Saint-Quentin's pocket and bandaged her
+eyes with it.
+
+"Astral vision, on condition of being blind," she said. "The less I see
+the more I see."
+
+And she added gravely:
+
+"Put your questions, madame. I will answer them to the best of my
+ability."
+
+"Remaining in a state of wakefulness all the time?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She rested her two elbows on the table and buried her face in her
+hands. The Countess at once said:
+
+"Who has been digging? Who has been making excavations under the
+fountain and under the sun-dial?"
+
+A minute passed slowly. They had the impression she was concentrating
+and withdrawing from all contact with the world around her. At last
+she said in measured tones which bore no resemblance to the accents of
+a pythoness or a somnambulist.
+
+"I see nothing on the esplanade. In that quarter the excavations must
+already be several days old, and all traces are obliterated. But in the
+ravine----"
+
+"In the ravine?" said the Countess.
+
+"The slab is standing on end and a man is digging a hole with a
+mattock."
+
+"A man? What man? Describe him."
+
+"He is wearing a very long blouse."
+
+"But his face?..."
+
+"His face is encircled by a muffler which passes under a cap with
+turned-down brim.... You cannot even see his eyes. When he has finished
+digging he lets the slab fall back into its place and carries away the
+mattock."
+
+"Nothing else?"
+
+"No. He has found nothing."
+
+"Are you sure of that?"
+
+"Absolutely sure."
+
+"And which way does he go?"
+
+"He goes back up the ravine.... He comes to the iron gates of the
+château."
+
+"But they're locked."
+
+"He has the key. He enters.... It is early in the morning.... No one is
+up.... He directs his steps to the orangerie.... There's a small room
+there."
+
+"Yes. The gardener keeps his implements in it."
+
+"The man sets the mattock in a corner, takes off his blouse and hangs
+it on a nail in the wall."
+
+"But he can't be the gardener!" exclaimed the Countess. "His face? Can
+you see his face?"
+
+"No ... no.... It remains covered up."
+
+"But his clothes?"
+
+"His clothes?... I can't make them out.... He goes out.... He
+disappears."
+
+The young girl broke off as if her attention were fixed on some one
+whose outline was blurred and lost in the shadow like a phantom.
+
+"I do not see him any longer," she said. "I can see nothing any
+longer.... Do I?... Ah yes, the steps of the château.... The door is
+shut quietly.... And then ... then the staircase.... A long corridor
+dimly lighted by small windows.... However I can distinguish some
+prints ... galloping horses ... sportsmen in red coats.... Ah! The
+man!... The man is there, on his knees, before a door.... He turns the
+handle of the door.... It opens."
+
+"It must be one of the servants," said the Countess in a hollow voice.
+"And it must be a room on the first floor, since there are prints on
+the passage walls. What is the room like?"
+
+"The shutters are closed. The man has lit a pocket-lamp and is hunting
+about.... There's a calendar on the chimney-piece.... It's to-day,
+Wednesday.... And an Empire clock with gilded columns...."
+
+"The clock in my boudoir," murmured the Countess.
+
+"The hands point to a quarter of six.... The light of the lamp is
+directed to the other side of the room, on to a walnut cupboard with
+two doors. The man opens the two doors and reveals a safe."
+
+They were listening to Dorothy in a troubled silence, their faces
+twitching with emotion. How could any one have failed to believe the
+whole of the vision the young girl was describing, seeing that she
+had never been over the château, never crossed the threshold of this
+boudoir, and that nevertheless she was describing things which must
+have been unknown to her.
+
+Dumfounded, the Countess exclaimed:
+
+"The safe was unlocked!... I'm certain of it ... I shut it after
+putting my jewels away ... I can still hear the sound of the door
+banging!"
+
+"Shut--yes. But the key there."
+
+"What does that matter? I have muddled up the letters of the
+combination."
+
+"Not so. The key turns."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"The key turns. I see the three letters."
+
+"The three letters! You see them!"
+
+"Clearly--an R, an O, and a B, that is to say the first three letters
+of the word Roborey. The safe is open. There's a jewel-case inside it.
+The man's hand gropes in it ... and takes...."
+
+"What? What? What has he taken?"
+
+"Two earrings."
+
+"Two sapphires, aren't they? Two sapphires?"
+
+"Yes, madame, two sapphires."
+
+Thoroughly upset and moving jerkily, the Countess went quickly out of
+the room, followed by her husband, and Raoul Davernoie. And Dorothy
+heard the Count say:
+
+"If this is true, you'll admit, Davernoie, that this instance of
+divination would be uncommonly strange."
+
+"Uncommonly strange indeed," replied d'Estreicher who had gone as far
+as the door with them.
+
+He shut the door on them and came back to the middle of the drawing-room
+with the manifest intention of speaking to the young girl.
+
+Dorothy had removed the handkerchief from her eyes and was rubbing
+them like a person who has come out of the dark. The bearded nobleman
+and she looked at one another for a few moments. Then, after some
+hesitation, he took a couple of steps back towards the door. But once
+more he changed his mind and turning towards Dorothy, stroked his beard
+at length, and at last broke into a quiet, delighted chuckle.
+
+Dorothy, who was never behind-hand when it came to laughing, did as the
+bearded nobleman had done.
+
+"You laugh?" said he.
+
+"I laugh because you laugh. But I am ignorant of the reason of your
+gayety. May I learn it?"
+
+"Certainly, mademoiselle. I laugh because I find all that very amusing."
+
+"What is very amusing?"
+
+D'Estreicher came a few steps further into the room and replied:
+
+"What is very amusing is to mix up into one and the same person the
+individual who was making an excavation under the slab of stone and
+this other individual who broke into the château last night and stole
+the jewels."
+
+"That is to say?" asked the young girl.
+
+"That is to say, to be yet more precise, the idea of throwing
+beforehand the burden of robbery committed by M. Saint-Quentin----"
+
+"Onto the back of M. d'Estreicher," said Dorothy, ending his sentence
+for him.
+
+The bearded nobleman made a wry face, but did not protest. He bowed and
+said:
+
+"That's it, exactly. We may just as well play with our cards on the
+table, mayn't we? We're neither of us people who have eyes for the
+purpose of not seeing. And if I saw a black silhouette slip out of a
+window last night. You, for your part, have seen----"
+
+"A gentleman who received a stone slab on his head."
+
+"Exactly. And I repeat, it's very ingenious of you to try to make
+them out to be one and the same person. Very ingenious ... and very
+dangerous."
+
+"In what way is it dangerous?"
+
+"In the sense that every attack provokes a counter-attack."
+
+"I haven't made any attack. But I wished to make it quite clear that I
+was ready to go to any lengths."
+
+"Even to the length of attributing the theft of this pair of earrings
+to me?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"Oh! Then I'd better lose no time proving that they're in your hands."
+
+"Be quick about it."
+
+Once more he stopped short on the threshold of the door and said:
+
+"Then we're enemies?"
+
+"We're enemies."
+
+"Why? You're quite unacquainted with me."
+
+"I don't need to be acquainted with you to know who you are."
+
+"What? Who I am? I'm the Chevalier Maxime d'Estreicher."
+
+"Possibly. But you're also the gentleman who, secretly and without his
+cousins' knowledge, seeks ... that which he has no right to seek. With
+what object if not to steal it?"
+
+"And that's your business?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"On what grounds?"
+
+"It won't be long before you learn."
+
+He made a movement--of anger or contempt? He controlled himself and
+mumbled:
+
+"All the worse for you and all the worse for Saint-Quentin. Good-bye
+for the present."
+
+Without another word he bowed and went out.
+
+It was an odd fact, but in this kind of brutal and violent duel,
+Dorothy had kept so cool that hardly had the door closed before,
+following her instincts of a street Arab, she indulged in a high kick
+and pirouetted half across the room. Then, satisfied with herself and
+the way things were going, she opened a glass-case, took from it a
+bottle of smelling-salts, and went to Saint-Quentin who was lying back
+in his easy chair.
+
+"Smell it, old chap."
+
+He sniffed it, began to sneeze, and stuttered:
+
+"We're lost!"
+
+"You're a fine fellow, Saint-Quentin! Why do you think we're lost?"
+
+"He's off to denounce us."
+
+"Undoubtedly he's off to buck up the inquiries about us. But as for
+denouncing us, for telling what he saw this morning, he daren't do it.
+If he does, I tell in my turn what I saw."
+
+"All the same, Dorothy, there was no point in telling them of the
+disappearance of the jewels."
+
+"They were bound to discover it sooner or later. The fact of having
+been the first to speak of it diverts suspicion."
+
+"Or turns it on to us, Dorothy."
+
+"In that case I accuse the bearded nobleman."
+
+"You need proofs."
+
+"I shall find them."
+
+"How you do detest him!"
+
+"No: but I wish to destroy him. He's a dangerous man, Saint-Quentin.
+I have an intuition of it; and you know that I hardly ever deceive
+myself. He has all the vices. He is betraying his cousins, the Count
+and Countess. He is capable of anything. I wish to rid them of him by
+any means."
+
+Saint-Quentin strove to reassure himself:
+
+"You're amazing. You make combinations and calculations; you act; you
+foresee. One feels that you direct your course in accordance with a
+plan."
+
+"In accordance with nothing at all, my lad. I go forward at a venture,
+and decide as Fortune bids."
+
+"However...."
+
+"I have a definite aim, that's all. Four people confront me, who,
+there's no doubt about it, are linked together by a common secret.
+Now the word 'Roborey,' uttered by my father when he was dying, gives
+me the right to try to find out whether he himself did not form part
+of this group, and if, in consequence, his daughter is not qualified
+to take his place. Up to now the four people hold together and keep me
+at a distance. I have vainly attempted the impossible to obtain their
+confidence in the first place and after it their confessions, so far
+without any result. But I shall succeed."
+
+She stamped her foot, with an abruptness in which was suddenly manifest
+all the energy and decision which animated this smiling and delicate
+creature, and she said again:
+
+"I shall succeed, Saint-Quentin. I swear it. I am not at the end of my
+revelations. There is another which will persuade them perhaps to be
+more open with me."
+
+"What is it, Dorothy?"
+
+"I know what I'm doing, my lad."
+
+She was silent. She gazed through the open window near which Castor and
+Pollux were fighting. The noise of hurrying footsteps reëchoed about
+the château. People were calling out to one another. A servant ran
+across the court at full speed and shut the gates, leaving a small part
+of the crowd and three or four caravans, of which one was Dorothy's
+Circus, in the court-yard.
+
+"The p-p-policemen! The p-p-policemen!" stammered Saint-Quintin. "There
+they are! They're examining the Rifle-Range!"
+
+"And d'Estreicher is with them," observed the young girl.
+
+"Oh, Dorothy, what have you done?"
+
+"It's all the same to me," she said, wholly unmoved. "These people have
+a secret which perhaps belongs to me as much as to them. I wish to know
+it. Excitement, sensations, all that works in my favor."
+
+"Nevertheless...."
+
+"Pipe, Saint-Quentin. To-day decides my future. Instead of trembling,
+rejoice ... a fox-trot, old chap!"
+
+She threw an arm round his waist, and propping him up like a tailor's
+dummy with wobbly legs, she forced him to turn; climbing in at the
+window, Castor and Pollux, followed by Captain Montfaucon, started to
+dance round the couple, chanting the air of the Capucine, first in
+the drawing-room, then across the large hall. But a fresh failure of
+Saint-Quentin's legs dashed the spirits of the dancers.
+
+Dorothy lost her temper.
+
+"What's the matter with you now?" she cried, trying to raise him and
+keep him upright.
+
+He stuttered:
+
+"I'm afraid ... I'm afraid."
+
+"But why on earth are you afraid? I've never seen you in such a funk.
+What are you afraid of?"
+
+"The jewels...."
+
+"Idiot! But you've thrown them into the clump!"
+
+"No."
+
+"You haven't?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But where are they then?"
+
+"I don't know. I looked for them in the basket as you told me to. They
+weren't there any longer. The little card-board box had disappeared."
+
+During his explanation Dorothy grew graver and graver. The danger
+suddenly grew clear to her.
+
+"Why didn't you tell me about it? I should not have acted as I did."
+
+"I didn't dare to. I didn't want to worry you."
+
+"Ah, Saint-Quentin, you were wrong, my lad."
+
+She uttered no other reproach, but added:
+
+"What's your explanation?"
+
+"I suppose I made a mistake and didn't put the earrings in the
+basket ... but somewhere else ... in some other part of the caravan....
+I've looked everywhere without finding them.... But those
+policemen--they'll find them."
+
+The young girl was overwhelmed. The earrings discovered in her
+possession, the theft duly verified meant arrest and jail.
+
+"Leave me to my fate," groaned Saint-Quentin. "I'm nothing but an
+imbecile.... A criminal.... Don't try to save me.... Throw all the
+blame on me, since it is the truth."
+
+At that moment a police-inspector in uniform appeared on the threshold
+of the hall, under the guidance of one of the servants.
+
+"Not a word," murmured Dorothy. "I forbid you to utter a single word."
+
+The inspector came forward:
+
+"Mademoiselle Dorothy?"
+
+"I'm Mademoiselle Dorothy, inspector. What is it you want?"
+
+"Follow me. It will be necessary...."
+
+He was interrupted by the entrance of the Countess who hurried in,
+accompanied by her husband and Raoul Davernoie.
+
+"No, no, inspector!" she exclaimed. "I absolutely oppose anything which
+might appear to show a lack of trust in mademoiselle. There is some
+misunderstanding."
+
+Raoul Davernoie also protested. But Count Octave observed:
+
+"Bear in mind, dear, that this is merely a formality, a general measure
+which the inspector is bound to take. A robbery has been committed, it
+is only right that the inquiry should include everybody----"
+
+"But it was mademoiselle who informed of the robbery," interrupted the
+Countess. "It is she who for the last hour has been warning us of all
+that is being plotted against us!"
+
+"But why not let her be questioned like everybody else? As d'Estreicher
+said just now, it's possible that your earrings were not stolen from
+your safe. You may have put them in your ears without thinking to-day,
+and then lost them out-of-doors ... where some one has picked them up."
+
+The inspector, an honest fellow who seemed very much annoyed by this
+difference of opinion between the Count and Countess, did not know what
+to do. Dorothy helped him out of the awkward situation.
+
+"I quite agree with you, Count. My part in the business may very well
+appear suspicious to you; and you have the right to ask how I know the
+word that opens the safe, and if my talents as a diviner are enough
+to explain my clairvoyance. There isn't any reason then for making an
+exception in my favor."
+
+She bent low before the Countess and gently kissed her hand.
+
+"You mustn't be present at the inquiry, madame. It's not a pleasant
+business. For me, it's one of the risks we strolling entertainers run;
+but you would find it painful. Only, I beg you, for reasons which
+you will presently understand, to come back to us after they have
+questioned me."
+
+"I promise you I will."
+
+"I'm at your service, inspector."
+
+She went off with her four companions and the inspector of police.
+Saint-Quentin had the air of a condemned criminal being led to the
+gallows. Captain Montfaucon, his hands in his pockets, the string round
+his wrist, dragged along his baggage-wagon and whistled an American
+tune, like a gallant fellow who knows that all these little affairs
+always end well.
+
+At the end of the court-yard, the last of the country folk were
+departing through the open gates, beside which the gamekeeper was
+posted. The showmen were grouped about their tents and in the orangery
+where the second policeman was examining their licenses.
+
+On reaching her caravan, Dorothy perceived d'Estreicher talking to two
+servants.
+
+"You then are the director of the inquiry, monsieur?" she said gayly.
+
+"I am indeed, mademoiselle--in your interest," he said in the same tone.
+
+"Then I have no doubt about the result of it," she said; and turning to
+the inspector, she added: "I have no keys to give you. Dorothy's Circus
+has no locks. Every thing is open to the world. Empty hands and empty
+pockets."
+
+The inspector seemed to have no great relish for the job. The two
+servants did their best and d'Estreicher made no bones about advising
+them.
+
+"Excuse me, mademoiselle," he said to the young girl, taking her on one
+side. "I'm of the opinion that no effort should be spared to make your
+complicity quite out of the question."
+
+"It's a serious business," she said ironically.
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Well, recall our conversation. There's a criminal: if it isn't me,
+it's you."
+
+D'Estreicher must have considered the young girl a formidable
+adversary, and he must have been frightened by her threats, for while
+he remained quite agreeable, gallant even, jesting with her, he was
+indefatigable in his investigation. At his bidding the servants lifted
+down the baskets and boxes, and displayed her wretched wardrobe, in the
+strongest contrast to the brilliantly colored handkerchiefs and shawls
+with which the young girl loved to adorn herself.
+
+They found nothing.
+
+They searched the walls and platform of the caravan, the mattresses,
+the harness of One-eyed Magpie, the sack of oats, and the food. Nothing.
+
+They searched the four boys. A maid felt Dorothy's clothes. The search
+was fruitless. The earrings were not to be found.
+
+"And that?" said d'Estreicher, pointing to the huge basket loaded with
+pots and pans which hung under the vehicle.
+
+With a furtive kick on the ankle Dorothy straightened Saint-Quentin who
+was tottering.
+
+"Let's bolt!" he stuttered.
+
+"Don't be a fool. The earrings are no longer there."
+
+"I may have made a mistake."
+
+"You're an idiot. One doesn't make a mistake in a case like that."
+
+"Then where is the card-board box?"
+
+"Have you got your eyes stuffed up?"
+
+"You can see it, can you?"
+
+"Of course I can see it--as plainly as the nose in the middle of your
+face."
+
+"In the caravan?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"On the ground ten yards away from you, between the legs of the bearded
+one."
+
+She glanced at the wagon of Captain Montfaucon which the child had
+abandoned to play with a doll, and the little packages from which,
+miniature bags and trunks and parcels, lay on the ground beside
+d'Estreicher's heels.
+
+One of these packages was nothing else than the card-board box which
+contained the earrings. Captain Montfaucon had that afternoon added it
+to what he called his haulage material.
+
+In confiding her unexpected discovery to Saint-Quentin, Dorothy, who
+did not suspect the keenness of the subtlety and power of observation
+of the man she was fighting, committed an irreparable imprudence. It
+was not on the young girl that d'Estreicher was keeping watch from
+behind the screen of his spectacles, but on her comrade Saint-Quentin
+whose distress and feebleness he had been quick to notice. Dorothy
+herself remained impassive. But would not Saint-Quentin end by giving
+some indication?
+
+That was what happened. When he recognized the little box with the red
+gutta-percha ring round it, Saint-Quentin heaved a great sigh in his
+sudden relief. He told himself that it would never occur to any one to
+untie these child's toys which lay on the ground for any one to pick
+up. Several times, without the slightest suspicion, d'Estreicher had
+brushed them aside with his feet and stumbled over the wagon, winning
+from the Captain this sharp reprimand:
+
+"Now then, sir! What would _you_ say, if you had a car and I knocked it
+over?"
+
+Saint-Quentin raised his head with a cheerful air. D'Estreicher
+followed the direction of his gaze and instinctively understood. The
+earrings were there, under the protection of Fortune and with the
+unwitting complicity of the captain. But in which of the packages? The
+card-board box seemed to him to be the most likely. Without a word he
+bent quickly down and seized it. He drew himself up, opened it with a
+furtive movement, and perceived, among some small white pebbles and
+shells, the two sapphires.
+
+He looked at Dorothy. She was very pale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE CROSS-EXAMINATION
+
+
+"Let's bolt!" again said Saint-Quentin, who had sunk down on to a trunk
+and would have been incapable of making a single step.
+
+"A splendid idea!" said Dorothy in a low voice. "Harness One-eyed
+Magpie; let's all five of us hide ourselves in the caravan and hell for
+leather for the Belgian frontier!"
+
+She gazed steadfastly at her enemy. She felt that she was beaten. With
+one word he could hand her over to justice, throw her into prison, and
+render vain all her threats. Of what value are the accusations of a
+thief?
+
+Box in hand, he balanced himself on one foot then on the other with
+ironical satisfaction. He had the appearance of waiting for her to
+weaken and become a suppliant. How he misjudged her! On the contrary
+she maintained an attitude of defiance and challenge as if she had had
+the audacity to say to him:
+
+"If you speak, you're lost."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and turning to the inspector who had seen
+nothing of this by-play, he said:
+
+"We may congratulate ourselves on having got it over, and entirely to
+mademoiselle's advantage. Goodness, what a disagreeable job!"
+
+"You had no business to set about it at all," said the Countess, coming
+up with the Count and Raoul Davernoie.
+
+"Oh yes, I had, dear cousin. Your husband and I had our doubts. It was
+just as well to clear them up."
+
+"And you've found nothing?" said the Count.
+
+"Nothing ... less than nothing--at the most an odd trifle with which
+Mr. Montfaucon was playing, and which Mademoiselle Dorothy had been
+kind enough to give me. You do, don't you, Mademoiselle?"
+
+"Yes," said Dorothy simply.
+
+He displayed the card-board box, round which he had again drawn the
+rubber ring, and handing it to the Countess:
+
+"Take care of that till to-morrow morning, will you, dear lady?"
+
+"Why should I take care of it and not you?"
+
+"It wouldn't be the same thing," said he. "To place it in your hands is
+as it were to affix a seal to it. To-morrow, at lunch, we'll open it
+together."
+
+"Do you make a point of it?"
+
+"Yes. It's an idea ... of sorts."
+
+"Very good," said the Countess. "I accept the charge if mademoiselle
+authorizes me to do so."
+
+"I ask it, madame," replied Dorothy, grasping the fact that the danger
+was postponed till the morrow. "The box contains nothing of importance,
+only white pebbles and shells. But since it amuses monsieur, and he
+wants a check on it, give him this small satisfaction."
+
+There remained, however, a formality which the inspector considered
+essential in inquiries of this kind. The examination of identification
+papers, delivery of documents, compliance with the regulations, were
+matters which he took very seriously indeed. On the other hand, if
+Dorothy surmised the existence of a secret between the Count and
+Countess and their cousins, it is certain that her hosts were not
+less puzzled by the strange personality which for an hour or two had
+dominated and disturbed them. Who was she? Where did she come from?
+What was her real name? What was the explanation of the fact that this
+distinguished and intelligent creature, with her supple cleverness
+and distinguished manners, was wandering about the country with four
+street-boys?
+
+She took from a locker in the caravan a passport-case which she carried
+under her arm; and when they all went into the orangery which was now
+empty, she took from this case a sheet of paper black with signatures
+and stamps and handed it to the inspector.
+
+"Is this all you've got?" he said almost immediately.
+
+"Isn't it sufficient? The secretary at the mayor's office this morning
+was satisfied with it."
+
+"They're satisfied with anything in mayors' offices," he said
+scornfully. "And what about these names?... Nobody's named Castor and
+Pollux?... And this one ... Baron de Saint-Quentin, acrobat!"
+
+Dorothy smiled:
+
+"Nevertheless it is his name and his profession."
+
+"Baron de Saint-Quentin?"
+
+"Certainly he was the son of a plumber who lived at Saint-Quentin and
+was called Baron."
+
+"But then he must have the paternal authorization."
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because his father died during the occupation."
+
+"And his mother?"
+
+"She's dead too. No relations. The English adopted the boy. Towards the
+end of the war he was assistant-cook in a hospital at Bar-le-Duc, where
+I was a nurse. I adopted him."
+
+The inspector uttered a grunt of approval and continued his examination.
+
+"And Castor and Pollux."
+
+"I don't know where they come from. In 1918, during the German push
+towards Châlons, they were caught in the storm and picked up on a road
+by some French soldiers who gave them their nicknames. The shock was
+so great that they've lost all memory of the years before those days.
+Are they brothers? Were they acquaintances? Where are their families?
+Nobody knows. I adopted them."
+
+"Oh!" said the inspector, somewhat taken aback. Then he went on: "There
+remains now Sire Montfaucon, captain in the American army, decorated
+with the Croix de guerre."
+
+"Present," said a voice.
+
+Montfaucon drew himself stiffly upright in a soldierly attitude, his
+heels touching, and his little finger on the seam of his enormous
+trousers.
+
+Dorothy caught him on to her knee and gave him a smacking kiss.
+
+"A brat, about whom also nobody knows anything. When he was four he
+was living with a dozen American soldiers who had made for him, by way
+of cradle, a fur bag. The day of the great American attack, one of the
+twelve carried him on his back; and it happened that of all those who
+advanced, it was this soldier who went furthest, and that they found
+his body next day near Montfaucon hill. Beside him, in the fur bag, the
+child was asleep, slightly wounded. On the battle-field, the colonel
+decorated him with the Croix de guerre, and gave him the name and
+rank of Captain Montfaucon of the American army. Later it fell to me
+to nurse him at the hospital to which he was brought in. Three months
+after that the colonel wished to carry him off to America. Montfaucon
+refused. He did not wish to leave me. I adopted him."
+
+Dorothy told the child's story in a low voice full of tenderness. The
+eyes of the Countess shone with tears and she murmured:
+
+"You acted admirably--admirably, mademoiselle. Only that gave you four
+orphans to provide for. With what resources?"
+
+Dorothy laughed and said:
+
+"We were rich."
+
+"Rich?"
+
+"Yes, thanks to Montfaucon. Before he went his colonel left two
+thousand francs for him. We bought a caravan and an old horse.
+Dorothy's Circus was formed."
+
+"A difficult profession to which you have to serve an apprenticeship."
+
+"We served our apprenticeship under an old English soldier, formerly a
+clown, who taught us all the tricks of the trade and all the wheezes.
+And then I had it all in my blood. The tight-rope, dancing, I was
+broken in to them years ago. Then we set out across France. It's rather
+a hard life, but it keeps one in the best of health, one is never dull,
+and taken all round Dorothy's Circus is a success."
+
+"But does it comply with the official regulations?" asked the inspector
+whose respect for red tape enabled him to control the sympathy he was
+feeling for her. "For after all this document is only valuable from
+the point of view of references. What I should like to see is your own
+certificate of identity."
+
+"I have that certificate, inspector."
+
+"Made out by whom?"
+
+"By the Prefecture of Châlons, which is the chief city of the
+department in which I was born."
+
+"Show it to me."
+
+The young girl plainly hesitated. She looked at Count Octave then at
+the Countess. She had begged them to come just in order that they might
+be witnesses of her examination and hear the answers she proposed to
+give, and now, at the last moment, she was rather sorry that she had
+done so.
+
+"Would you prefer us to withdraw?" said the Countess.
+
+"No, no," she replied quickly. "On the contrary I insist on your
+knowing."
+
+"And us too?" said Raoul Davernoie.
+
+"Yes," she said smiling. "There is a fact which it is my duty to
+divulge to you. Oh, nothing of great importance. But ... all the same."
+
+She took from her case a dirty card with broken corners.
+
+"Here it is," she said.
+
+The inspector examined the card carefully and said in the tone of one
+who is not to be humbugged:
+
+"But that isn't your name. It's a _nom de guerre_ of course--like those
+of your young comrades?"
+
+"Not at all, inspector."
+
+"Come, come, you're not going to get me to believe...."
+
+"Here is my birth certificate in support of it, inspector, stamped with
+the stamp of the commune of Argonne."
+
+"What? You belong to the village of Argonne!" cried the Count de Chagny.
+
+"I did, Monsieur le Comte. But this unknown village, which gave its
+name to the whole district of the Argonne, no longer exists. The war
+has suppressed it."
+
+"Yes ... yes ... I know," said the Count. "We had a friend there--a
+relation. Didn't we, d'Estreicher?"
+
+"Doubtless it was Jean d'Argonne?" she asked.
+
+"It was. Jean d'Argonne died at the hospital at Clermont from the
+effects of a wound ... Lieutenant the Prince of Argonne. You knew him."
+
+"I knew him."
+
+"Where? When? Under what conditions?"
+
+"Goodness! Under the ordinary conditions in which one knows a person
+with whom one is closely connected."
+
+"What? There were ties between you and Jean d'Argonne ... the ties of
+relationship?"
+
+"The closest ties. He was my father."
+
+"Your father! Jean d'Argonne! What are you talking about? It's
+impossible! See why ... Jean's daughter was called Yolande."
+
+"Yolande, Isabel, Dorothy."
+
+The Count snatched the card which the inspector was turning over and
+over again, and read aloud in a tone of amazement:
+
+"Yolande Isabel Dorothy, Princess of Argonne!"
+
+She finished the sentence for him, laughing:
+
+"Countess Marescot, Baroness de la Hêtraie, de Beaugreval, and other
+places."
+
+The Count seized the birth certificate with no less eagerness, and more
+and more astounded, read it slowly syllable by syllable:
+
+"Yolande Isabel Dorothy, Princess of Argonne, born at Argonne, on the
+14th of October, 1900, legitimate daughter of Jean de Marescot, Prince
+of Argonne, and of Jessie Varenne."
+
+Further doubt was impossible. The civil status to which the young girl
+laid claim was established by proofs, which they were the less inclined
+to challenge since the unexpected fact explained exactly everything
+which appeared inexplicable in the manners and even in the appearance
+of Dorothy.
+
+The Countess gave her feelings full play:
+
+"Yolande? You are the little Yolande about whom Jean d'Argonne used to
+talk to us with such fondness."
+
+"He was very fond of me," said the young girl. "Circumstances did not
+allow us to live always together as I should have liked. But I was as
+fond of him as if I had seen him every day."
+
+"Yes," said the Countess. "One could not help being fond of him. I
+only saw him twice in my life, in Paris, at the beginning of the war.
+But what delightful recollections of him I retain! A man teeming with
+gayety and lightheartedness! Just like you, Dorothy. Besides, I find
+him again in you ... the eyes ... and above all the smile."
+
+Dorothy displayed two photographs which she took from among her papers.
+
+"His portrait, madame. Do you recognize it?"
+
+"I should think so! And the other, this lady?"
+
+"My mother who died many years ago. He adored her."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know. She was formerly on the stage, wasn't she? I
+remember. We will talk it all over, if you will, and about your own
+life, the misfortunes which have driven you to live like this. But
+first of all, how came you here? And why?"
+
+Dorothy told them how she had chanced to see the word Roborey, which
+her father had repeated when he was dying. Then the Count interrupted
+her narration.
+
+He was a perfectly commonplace man who always did his best to invest
+matters with the greatest possible solemnity, in order that he might
+play the chief part in them, which his rank and fortune assigned to
+him. As a matter of form he consulted his two comrades, then, without
+waiting to hear their answers, he dismissed the inspector with the lack
+of ceremony of a grand seignior. In the same fashion he turned out
+Saint-Quentin and the three boys, carefully closed the two doors, bade
+the two women sit down, and walked up and down in front of them with
+his hands behind his back and an air of profound thoughtfulness.
+
+Dorothy was quite content. She had won a victory, compelled her hosts
+to speak the words she wanted. The Countess held her tightly to
+her. Raoul appeared to be a friend. All was going well. There was,
+indeed, standing a little apart from them, hostile and formidable, the
+bearded nobleman, whose hard eyes never left her. But sure of herself,
+accepting the combat, full of careless daring, she refused to bend
+before the menace of the terrible danger which, however, might at any
+moment crush her.
+
+"Mademoiselle," said the Count de Chagny with an air of great
+importance. "It has seemed to us, to my cousins and me, since you are
+the daughter of Jean d'Argonne, whose loss we so deeply deplore--it
+has seemed to us, I say, that we ought in our turn, to enlighten you
+concerning events of which he was cognizant and of which he would
+have informed you had he not been prevented by death ... of which he
+actually desired, as we know, that you should be informed."
+
+He paused, delighted with his preamble. On occasions like this he loved
+to indulge in a pomposity of diction employing only the most select
+vocabulary, striving to observe the rules of grammar, and fearless of
+subjunctives. He went on:
+
+"Mademoiselle, my father, François de Chagny, my grandfather,
+Dominique de Chagny, and my great-grandfather, Gaspard de Chagny,
+lived their lives in the sure conviction that great wealth would
+be ... how shall I put it? ... would be offered to them, by reason of
+certain unknown conditions of which each of them was confident in
+advance that he would be the beneficiary. And each of them took the
+greater joy in the fact and indulged in a hope all the more agreeable
+because the Revolution had ruined the house of the Counts de Chagny
+from the roof-tree to the basement. On what was this conviction based?
+Neither François, nor Dominique, nor Gaspard de Chagny ever knew. It
+came from vague legends which described exactly neither the nature of
+the riches nor the epoch at which they would appear, but all of which
+had this in common that they evoked the name of Roborey. And these
+legends could not have gone very far back since this château, which
+was formerly called the Château de Chagny, only received the name of
+Chagny-Roborey in the reign of Louis XVI. Is it this designation which
+brought about the excavations that were made from time to time? It is
+extremely probable. At all events it is a fact that at the very moment
+the war broke out I had formed the resolution of restoring this Château
+de Roborey, which had become merely a shooting-box and definitely
+settling down in it, for all that, and I am not ashamed to say it, my
+recent marriage with Madame de Chagny had enabled me to wait for these
+so-called riches without excessive impatience."
+
+The Count smiled a subtle smile in making this discreet allusion to
+the manner in which he had regilded his heraldic shield, and continued:
+
+"It is needless to tell you, I hope, that during the war the Count de
+Chagny did his duty as a good Frenchman. In 1915, as lieutenant of
+light-infantry, I was in Paris on leave when a series of coincidences,
+brought about by the war, brought me into touch with three persons with
+whom I had not previously been acquainted, and whose ties of kin-ship
+with the Chagny-Roborey I learnt by accident. The first was the father
+of Raoul Davernoie, Commandant Georges Davernoie, the second Maxime
+d'Estreicher, the last Jean d'Argonne. All four of us were distant
+cousins, all four on leave or recovering from wounds. And so it came
+about that in the course of our interviews, that we learnt, to our
+great surprise, that the same legend had been handed down in each of
+our four families. Like their fathers and their grandfathers Georges
+Davernoie, d'Estreicher, and Jean d'Argonne were awaiting the fabulous
+fortune which was promised them and which was to settle the debts
+which this conviction had led them on to contract. Moreover, the same
+ignorance prevailed among the four cousins. No proof, no indication----"
+
+After a fresh pause intended to lead up to an impressive effect, the
+Count continued: "But yes, one indication, however: Jean d'Argonne
+remembered a gold medal the importance of which his father had formerly
+impressed on him. His father died a few days later from an accident
+in the hunting-field without having told him anything more. But Jean
+d'Argonne declared that this medal bore on it an inscription, and
+that one of these words, he did not recall it at once, was this word
+Roborey, on which all our hopes are undoubtedly concentrated. He
+informed us then of his intention of ransacking the twenty trunks or
+so, which he had been able in August, 1914, to bring away from his
+country seat before its imminent pillage, and to store in a shed at
+Bar-le-Duc. But before he went, since we were all men of honor, exposed
+to the risks of war, we all four took a solemn oath that all our
+discoveries relative to the famous treasure, should be common property.
+Henceforth and forever, the treasure, should Providence decide to grant
+it to us, belonged to all the four; and Jean d'Argonne, whose leave
+expired, left us."
+
+"It was at the end of 1915, wasn't it?" asked Dorothy. "We passed a
+week together, the happiest week of my life. I was never to see him
+again."
+
+"It was indeed towards the end of 1915," the Count agreed. "A month
+later Jean d'Argonne, wounded in the North, was sent into hospital at
+Chartres, from which he wrote to us a long letter ... never finished."
+
+The Countess de Chagny made a sudden movement. She appeared to
+disapprove of what her husband had said.
+
+"Yes, yes, I will lay that letter before you," said the Count firmly.
+
+"Perhaps you're right," murmured the Countess. "Nevertheless----"
+
+"What are you afraid of, madame?" said Dorothy.
+
+"I am afraid of our causing you pain to no purpose, Dorothy. The end of
+it will reveal to you very painful things."
+
+"But it is our duty to communicate it to her," said the Count in a
+peremptory tone. And he drew from his pocket-book a letter stamped
+with the Red Cross and unfolded it. Dorothy felt her heart flutter
+with a sudden oppression. She recognized her father's handwriting. The
+Countess squeezed her hand. She saw that Raoul Davernoie was regarding
+her with an air of compassion; and with an anxious face, trying less
+to understand the sentences she heard than to guess the end of this
+letter, she listened to it.
+
+    "My dear Octave,
+
+    "I will first of all set your mind at rest about my wound. It is a
+    mere nothing, no complications to be afraid of. At the most a
+    little fever at night, which bothers the major; but all that will
+    pass. We will say no more about it, but come straight to my journey
+    to Bar-le-Duc.
+
+    "Octave, I may tell you without any beating about the bush that it
+    has not been useless, and that after a patient search I ended by
+    ferreting out from among a pile of boots and that conglomeration
+    of useless objects which one brings away with one when one bolts,
+    the precious medal. At the end of my convalescence when I come to
+    Paris I will show it to you. But in the meantime, while keeping
+    secret the indications engraved on the face of the medal, I may
+    tell you that on the reverse are engraved these three Latin words:
+    '_In Robore Fortuna_.' Three words which may be thus translated:
+    'Fortune is in the firm heart,'  but which, in view of the presence
+    of this word 'Robore' and in spite of the difference in the
+    spelling, doubtless point to the Château de Roborey as the place in
+    which the fortune, of which our family legends tell will
+    consequently be hidden.
+
+    "Have we not here, my dear Octave, a step forward on our path
+    towards the truth? We shall do better still. And perhaps we shall
+    be helped in the matter, in the most unexpected fashion, by an
+    extremely nice young person, with whom I have just passed several
+    days which have charmed me--I mean my dear little Yolande.
+
+    "You know, my dear friend, that I have very often regretted not
+    having been the father I should like to have been. My love for
+    Yolande's mother, my grief at her death, my life of wandering
+    during the years which followed it, all kept me far away from the
+    modest farm which you call my country seat, and which, I am sure,
+    is no longer anything but a heap of ruins.
+
+    "During that time, Yolande was living in the care of the people who
+    farmed my land, bringing herself up, getting her education from the
+    village priest, or the schoolmaster, and above all from Nature,
+    loving the animals, cultivating her flowers, light-hearted and
+    uncommonly thoughtful.
+
+    "Several times, during my visits to Argonne, her common sense and
+    intelligence astonished me. On this occasion I found her, in the
+    field-hospital of Bar-le-Duc, in which she has, on her own
+    initiative, established herself as an assistant-nurse, a young
+    girl. Barely fifteen, you cannot imagine the ascendancy she
+    exercises over everyone about her. She decides matters like a grown
+    person and she makes those decisions according to her own judgment.
+    She has an accurate insight into reality, not merely into
+    appearances but into that which lies below appearances.
+
+    "'You do see clearly,' I said to her. 'You have the eyes of a cat
+    which moves, quite at its ease, through the darkness.'
+
+    "My dear Octave, when the war is finished, I shall bring Yolande to
+    you; and I assure you that, along with our friends, we shall
+    succeed in our enterprise----"
+
+The Count stopped. Dorothy smiled sadly, deeply touched by the
+tenderness and admiration which this letter so clearly displayed. She
+asked:
+
+"That isn't all, is it?"
+
+"The letter itself ends there," said the Count. "Dated the 16th of
+January, it was not posted till the 20th. I did not receive it, for
+various reasons, till three weeks later. And I learnt later that on the
+15th of January Jean d'Argonne had a more violent attack of fever, of
+that fever which baffled the surgeon-major and which indicated a sudden
+infection of the wound of which your father died ... or at least----"
+
+"Or at least?" asked the young girl.
+
+"Or at least which was officially stated to be the cause of his death,"
+said the Count in a lower voice.
+
+"What's that you say? What's that you say?" cried Dorothy. "My father
+did not die of his wound?"
+
+"It is not certain," the Count suggested.
+
+"But then what did he die of? What do you suggest? What do you
+suppose?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"WE WILL HELP YOU"
+
+
+The Count was silent.
+
+Dorothy murmured fearfully, full of the dread with which the utterance
+of certain words inspired one:
+
+"Is it possible? Can they have murdered.... Can they have murdered my
+father?"
+
+"Everything leads one to believe it."
+
+"And how?"
+
+"Poison."
+
+The blow had fallen. The young girl burst into tears. The Count bent
+over her and said:
+
+"Read it. For my part, I am of the opinion that your father scribbled
+these last pages between two attacks of fever. When he was dead, the
+hospital authorities finding a letter and an envelope all ready for the
+post, sent it all on to me without examining it. Look at the end....
+It is the writing of a very sick man.... The pencil moves at random
+directed by an effort of will which was every moment growing weaker."
+
+Dorothy dried her tears. She wished to know and judge for herself, and
+she read in a low voice:
+
+    "What a dream!... But was it really a dream?... What I saw last
+    night, did I see it in a nightmare? Or did I actually see it?...
+    The rest of the wounded men ... my neighbors ... not one of them
+    was awakened. Yet the man ... the men made a noise.... There were
+    two of them. They were talking in a low voice ... in the garden ...
+    under a window ... which was certainly open on account of the
+    heat.... And then the window was pushed.... To do that one of the
+    two must have climbed on to the shoulders of the other. What did he
+    want? He tried to pass his arm through.... But the window caught
+    against the table by the side of the bed.... And then he must have
+    slipped off his jacket.... In spite of that his sleeve must have
+    caught in the window and only his arm ... his bare arm, came
+    through ... preceded by a hand which groped in my direction ... in
+    the direction of the drawer.... Then I understood.... The medal was
+    in the drawer.... Ah, how I wanted to cry out! But my throat was
+    cramped.... Then another thing terrified me. The hand held a small
+    bottle.... There was on the table a glass of water, for me to drink
+    with a dose of my medicine.... The hand poured several drops from
+    the bottle into the glass. Horror!... Poison beyond a doubt!... But
+    I will not drink my medicine--no, no!... And I write this, this
+    morning, to make sure of being able to recall it.... I write that
+    the hand afterwards opened the drawer.... And while it was seizing
+    the medal ... I saw ... I saw on the naked arm ... above the
+    elbow ... words written----"
+
+Dorothy had to bend lower so shaky and illegible did the writing
+become; and it was with great difficulty that she was able, syllable by
+syllable, to decipher it:
+
+    "Three words written ... tattooed ... as sailors do ... three
+    words  ... Good God! ... these three words! The words on the
+    medal!... _In robore fortuna!_"
+
+That was all. The unfinished sheet showed nothing more but
+undecipherable characters, which Dorothy did not even try to make out.
+
+For a long while she sat with bowed head, the tears falling from her
+half-closed eyes. They perceived that the circumstances in which, in
+all likelihood, her father had died, had brought back all her grief.
+
+The Count, however, continued:
+
+"The fever must have returned ... the delirium ... and not knowing what
+he was doing, he must have drunk the poison. Or, at any rate, it is a
+plausible hypothesis ... for what else could it have been that this
+hand poured into the glass? But I confess that we have not arrived
+at any certainty in the matter. D'Estreicher and Raoul's father, at
+once apprized by me of what had happened, accompanied me to Chartres.
+Unfortunately, the staff, the surgeon-major and the two nurses had been
+changed, so that I was brought up short against the official document
+which ascribed the death to infectious complications. Moreover, ought
+we to have made further researches? My two cousins were not of that
+opinion, neither was I? A crime?... How to prove it? By means of these
+lines in which a sick man describe a nightmare which has ridden him?
+Impossible. Isn't that your opinion, mademoiselle?"
+
+Dorothy did not answer; and it put the Count rather out of countenance.
+He seemed to defend himself--not without a touch of temper:
+
+"But we could not, Mademoiselle! Owing to the war, we ran against
+endless difficulties. It was impossible! We had to cling to the one
+fact which we had actually learned and not venture beyond this actual
+fact which I will state in these terms: In addition to us four, to
+us three rather, since Jean d'Argonne, alas! was no more, there was
+a fourth person attacking the problem which we had set ourselves to
+solve; and that person, moreover, had a considerable advantage over us.
+A rival, an enemy had arisen, capable of the most infamous actions to
+attain his end. What enemy?
+
+"Events did not allow us to busy ourselves with this affair, and what
+is more, prevented us from finding you as we should have wished. Two
+letters that I wrote to you at Bar-le-Duc remained unanswered. Months
+passed. Georges Davernoie was killed at Verdun, d'Estreicher wounded in
+Artois, and I myself despatched on a mission to Salonica from which I
+did not return till after the Armistice. In the following year the work
+here was begun. The house-warming took place yesterday, and only to-day
+does chance bring you here.
+
+"You can understand, Mademoiselle, how amazed we were when we learned,
+step by step, first that excavations were being made without our
+knowing anything about it, that the places in which they had been
+made were explained by the word Fortuna, which bore out exactly the
+inscription which your father had read twice, on the gold medal and on
+the arm which stole the gold medal from him. Our confidence in your
+extraordinary clearsightedness became such that Madame de Chagny and
+Raoul Davernoie wished you to be informed of the complete history of
+the affair; and I must admit that the Countess de Chagny displayed
+remarkable intuition and judgment since the confidence we felt in you
+was really placed in that Yolande d'Argonne whom her father recommended
+to us. It is then but natural, mademoiselle, that we should invite
+you to collaborate with us in our attempt. You take the place of Jean
+d'Argonne, as Raoul Davernoie has taken the place of Georges Davernoie.
+Our partnership is unbroken."
+
+A shadow rested on the satisfaction that the Count de Chagny was
+feeling in his eloquence and magnanimous proposal. Dorothy maintained
+an obstinate silence. Her eyes gazed vacantly before her. She did not
+stir. Was she thinking that the Count had not taken much trouble to
+discover the daughter of his kinsman Jean d'Argonne and to rescue her
+from the life she was leading? Was she still feeling some resentment
+on account of the humiliation she had suffered in being accused of
+stealing the earrings?
+
+The Countess de Chagny questioned her gently:
+
+"What's the matter, Dorothy? This letter has filled you with gloom.
+It's the death of your father, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Dorothy after a pause in a dull voice. "It's a terrible
+business."
+
+"You also believe that they murdered him?"
+
+"Certainly. If not, the medal would have been found. Besides, the last
+sheets of the letter are explicit."
+
+"And it's your feeling that we ought to have striven to bring the
+murderer to book?"
+
+"I don't know ... I don't know," said the young girl slowly.
+
+"But if you think so, we can take the matter up again. You may be sure
+that we will lend you our assistance."
+
+"No," she said. "I will act alone. It will be best. I will discover the
+guilty man; and he shall be punished. I promise my father he shall. I
+swear it."
+
+She uttered these words with measured gravity, raising her hand a
+little.
+
+"We will help you, Dorothy," declared the Countess. "For I hope that
+you won't leave us.... Here you are at home."
+
+Dorothy shook her head. "You are too kind, madame."
+
+"It isn't kindness: it's affection. You won my heart at first sight,
+and I beg you to be my friend."
+
+"I am, madame--wholly your friend. But----"
+
+"What? You refuse?" exclaimed the Count de Chagny in a tone of
+vexation. "We offer the daughter of Jean d'Argonne, our cousin, a life
+befitting her name and birth and you prefer to go back to that wretched
+existence!"
+
+"It is not wretched, I assure you, monsieur. My four children and I are
+used to it. Their health demands it."
+
+The Countess insisted: "But we can't allow it--really! You're going to
+stay with us at least some days; and from this evening you will dine
+and sleep at the château."
+
+"I beg you to excuse me, madame. I'm rather tired.... I want to be
+alone."
+
+In truth she appeared of a sudden to be worn out with fatigue. One
+would never have supposed that a smile could animate that drawn,
+dejected face.
+
+The Countess de Chagny insisted no longer.
+
+"Ah well, postpone your decision till to-morrow. Send your four
+children to dinner this evening. It will give us great pleasure to
+question them.... Between now and to-morrow you can think it over, and
+if you persist, I'll let you go your way. You'll agree to that, won't
+you?"
+
+Dorothy rose and went towards the door. The Count and Countess went
+with her. But on the threshold she paused for a moment. In spite of her
+grief, the mysterious adventure which had during the last hour or two
+been revealed to her continued to exercise her mind, without, so to
+speak, her being aware of it; and throwing the first ray of light into
+the darkness, she asserted:
+
+"I really believe that all the legends that have been handed down in
+our families are based on a reality. There must be somewhere about here
+buried, or hidden, treasure; and that treasure one of these days will
+become the property of him, or of those who shall be the possessors of
+the talisman--that is to say, of the gold medal which was stolen from
+my father. That's why I should like to know whether any of you, besides
+my father, has ever heard of a gold medal being mentioned in these
+legends."
+
+It was Raoul Davernoie who answered:
+
+"That's a point on which I can give you some information, mademoiselle.
+A fortnight ago I saw in the hands of my grandfather, with whom I live
+at Hillocks Manor in Vendée, a large gold coin. He was studying it;
+and he put it back in its case at once with the evident intention of
+hiding it from me."
+
+"And he didn't tell you anything about it?"
+
+"Not a word. However, on the eve of my departure he said to me: 'When
+you come back I've an important revelation to make to you. I ought to
+have made it long ago.'"
+
+"You believe that he was referring to the matter in hand?"
+
+"I do. And for that reason on my arrival at Roborey I informed my
+cousins, de Chagny and d'Estreicher, who promised to pay me a visit at
+the end of July when I will inform them of what I have learned."
+
+"That's all?"
+
+"All, mademoiselle; and it appears to me to confirm your hypothesis. We
+have here a talisman of which there are doubtless several copies."
+
+"Yes ... yes ... there's no doubt about it," murmured the young girl.
+"And the death of my father is explained by the fact that he was the
+possessor of this talisman."
+
+"But," objected Raoul Davernoie, "was it not enough to steal it from
+him? Why this useless crime?"
+
+"Because, remember, the gold medal gives certain indications. In
+getting rid of my father they reduced the number of those who, in
+perhaps the near future, will be called upon to share these riches. Who
+knows whether other crimes have not been committed?"
+
+"Other crimes? In that case my grandfather is in danger."
+
+"He is," she said simply.
+
+The Count became uneasy and, pretending to laugh, he said:
+
+"Then we also are in danger, mademoiselle, since there are signs of
+recent excavation about Roborey."
+
+"You also, Count."
+
+"We ought then to be on our guard."
+
+"I advise you to."
+
+The Count de Chagny turned pale and said in a shaky voice:
+
+"How? What measures should we take?"
+
+"I will tell you to-morrow," said Dorothy. "You shall know to-morrow
+what you have to fear and what measures you ought to take to defend
+yourselves."
+
+"You promise that?"
+
+"I promise it."
+
+D'Estreicher, who had followed with close attention every phase of the
+conversation, without taking part in it, stepped forward:
+
+"We make all the more point of this meeting to-morrow, mademoiselle,
+because we still have to solve together a little additional problem,
+the problem of the card-board box. You haven't forgotten it?"
+
+"I forget nothing, monsieur," she said. "To-morrow, at the hour fixed,
+that little matter and other matters, the theft of the sapphire
+earrings among other things, shall be made clear."
+
+She went out of the orangery.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night was falling. The gates had been re-opened; and the
+showmen, having dismantled their shows, were departing. Dorothy found
+Saint-Quentin waiting for her in great anxiety and the three children
+lighting a fire. When the dinner-bell rang, she sent them to the
+château and remained alone to make her meal of the thick soup and some
+fruit. In the evening, while waiting for them, she strolled through the
+night towards the parapet which looked down on to the ravine and rested
+her elbows on it.
+
+The moon was not visible, but the veil of light clouds, which floated
+across the heavens, were imbued with its light. For a long while she
+was conscious of the deep silence, and, bare-headed, she presented her
+burning brow to the fresh evening airs which ruffled her hair.
+
+"Dorothy...."
+
+Her name had been spoken in a low voice by some one who had drawn near
+her without her hearing him. But the sound of his voice, low as it was,
+made her tremble. Even before recognizing the outline of d'Estreicher
+she divined his presence.
+
+Had the parapet been lower and the ravine less profound she might have
+essayed flight, such dread did this man inspire in her. However, she
+braced herself to keep calm and master him.
+
+"What do you want, monsieur," she said coldly. "The Count and Countess
+had the delicacy to respect my desire to keep quiet. I'm surprised to
+see you here."
+
+He did not answer, but she discerned his dark shape nearer and repeated:
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"I only want to say a few words to you," he murmured.
+
+"To-morrow--at the château will be soon enough."
+
+"No; what I have to say can only be heard by you and me; and I can
+assure you, mademoiselle, that you can listen to it without being
+offended. In spite of the incomprehensible hostility that you have
+displayed towards me from the moment we met, I feel, for my part,
+nothing but friendliness, admiration, and the greatest respect for you.
+You need fear neither my words nor my actions. I am not addressing
+myself to the charming and attractive young girl, but to the woman who,
+all this afternoon, has dumfounded us by her intelligence. Now, listen
+to me----"
+
+"No," she broke in. "I will not. Your proposals can only be insulting."
+
+He went on, in a louder voice; and she could feel that gentleness and
+respectfulness did not come easy to him; he went on:
+
+"Listen to me. I order you to listen to me ... and to answer at
+once. I'm no maker of phrases and I'll come straight to the point,
+rather crudely if I must, at the risk of shocking you. Here it is:
+Chance has in a trice thrown you into an affair which I have every
+right to consider my business and no one else's. We are stuck with
+supernumeraries, of whom, when the time comes, I do not mean to take
+the slightest account. All these people are imbeciles who will never
+get anywhere. Chagny is a conceited ass.... Davernoie a country
+bumpkin ... so much dead weight that we've got to lug about with us,
+you and I. Then why work for them?... Let's work for ourselves, for the
+two of us. Will you? You and I partners, friends, what a job we should
+make of it! My energy and strength at the service of your intelligence
+and clearsightedness! Besides ... besides, consider all I know! For I,
+I know the problem! What will take you weeks to discover, what, I'm
+certain, you'll never discover, I have at my fingers' ends. I know
+all the factors in the problem except one or two which I shall end by
+adding to them. Help me. Let us search together. It means a fortune,
+the discovery of fabulous wealth, boundless power.... Will you?"
+
+He bent a little too far over the young girl; and his fingers brushed
+the cloak she was wearing. Dorothy, who had listened in silence in
+order to learn the inmost thoughts of her adversary, started back
+indignantly at his touch.
+
+"Be off!... Leave me alone!... I forbid you to touch me!... You a
+friend?... You? You?"
+
+The repulsion with which he inspired Dorothy set him beside himself,
+and foaming with rage, he cried furiously:
+
+"So.... So ... you refuse? You refuse, in spite of the secret I have
+surprised, in spite of what I can do ... and what I'm going to do....
+For the stolen earrings: it is not merely a matter of Saint-Quentin.
+You were there, in the ravine, to watch over his expedition. And what
+is more, as his accomplice, you protected him. And the proof exists,
+terrible, irrefutable. The box is in the hands of the Countess. And you
+dare? You! A thief!"
+
+He made a grab at her. Dorothy ducked and slipped along the parapet.
+But he was able to grip her wrists, and he was dragging her towards
+him, when of a sudden he let go of her, struck by a ray of light which
+blinded him.
+
+Perched on the parapet Montfaucon had switched full on his face the
+clear light of an electric torch.
+
+D'Estreicher took himself off. The ray followed him, cleverly guided.
+
+"Dirty little brat!" he growled. "I'll get you.... And you too, young
+woman! If to-morrow, at two o'clock, at the château, you do not come to
+heel, the box will be opened in the presence of the police. It's for
+you to choose."
+
+He disappeared in the shrubbery.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Toward three o'clock in the morning, the trap, which looked down on the
+box from the interior of the caravan, was opened, as it had been opened
+the morning before. A hand reached out and shook Saint-Quentin, who was
+sleeping under his rugs.
+
+"Get up. Dress yourself. No noise."
+
+He protested.
+
+"Dorothy, what you wish to do is absurd."
+
+"Do as you're told."
+
+Saint-Quentin obeyed.
+
+Outside the caravan he found Dorothy, quite ready. By the light of the
+moon he saw that she was carrying a canvas bag, slung on a band running
+over her shoulder, and a coil of rope.
+
+She led him to the spot at which the parapet touched the entrance
+gates. They fastened the rope to one of the bars and slid down it. Then
+Saint-Quentin climbed up to the parapet and unfastened the rope. They
+went down the slope into the ravine and along the foot of the cliff to
+the fissure up which Saint-Quentin had climbed the night before.
+
+"Let us climb up," said Dorothy. "You will let down the rope and help
+me to ascend."
+
+The ascent was not very difficult. The window of the pantry was open.
+They climbed in through it and Dorothy lit her bull's-eye lantern.
+
+"Take that little ladder in the corner," she said.
+
+But Saint-Quentin started to reason with her afresh:
+
+"It's absurd. It's madness. We are running into the lion's maw."
+
+"Get on!"
+
+"But indeed, Dorothy."
+
+He got a thump in the ribs.
+
+"Stop it! And answer me," she snapped. "You're sure that d'Estreicher's
+is the last bedroom in the left-hand passage."
+
+"Certain. As you told me to, I questioned the servants without seeming
+to do so, after dinner last night."
+
+"And you dropped the powder I gave you into his cup of coffee?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then he's sleeping like a log; and we can go straight to him. Not
+another word!"
+
+On their way they stopped at a door. It was the dressing-room adjoining
+the boudoir of the Countess. Saint-Quentin set his ladder against it
+and climbed through the transom.
+
+Three minutes later he came back.
+
+"Did you find the card-board box?" Dorothy asked.
+
+"Yes. I found it on the table, took the earrings out of it, and put the
+box back in its place with the rubber ring round it."
+
+They went on down the passage.
+
+Each bedroom had a dressing-room and a closet which served as wardrobe
+attached to it. They stopped before the last transom; Saint-Quentin
+climbed through it and opened the door of the dressing-room for Dorothy.
+
+There was a door between the dressing-room and the bedroom. Dorothy
+opened it an inch and let a ray from her lantern fall on the bed.
+
+"He's asleep," she whispered.
+
+She drew a large handkerchief from her bag, uncorked a small bottle of
+chloroform and poured some drops on the handkerchief.
+
+Across the bed, in his clothes, like a man suddenly overcome by sleep,
+d'Estreicher was sleeping so deeply that the young girl switched on
+the electric light. Then very gently she placed the chloroformed
+handkerchief over his face.
+
+The man sighed, writhed, and was still.
+
+Very cautiously Dorothy and Saint-Quentin passed two slip-knots in a
+rope over both of his arms and tied the two ends of it round the iron
+uprights of the bed. Then quickly without bothering about him they
+wrapped the bedclothes round his body and legs, and tied them round
+him with the table-cloth and curtain-cords.
+
+Then d'Estreicher did awake. He tried to defend himself--too late. He
+called out. Dorothy gagged him with a napkin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning the Count and Countess de Chagny were taking their coffee
+with Raoul Davernoie in the big dining-room of the château when the
+porter came to inform them that at daybreak the directress of Dorothy's
+Circus had asked him to open the gates and that the caravan had
+departed. The directress had left a letter addressed to the Count de
+Chagny. All three of them went upstairs to the Countess's boudoir. The
+letter ran as follows:
+
+    "My cousin"--offended by her brusqueness, the Count started--then
+    he went on:
+
+    "My cousin: I took an oath, and I keep it. The man who was making
+    excavations round the château and last night stole the earrings, is
+    the same person who five years ago stole the medal and poisoned my
+    father.
+
+    "I hand him over to you. Let justice take its course.
+
+    "DOROTHY, PRINCESS OF ARGONNE."
+
+The Count and Countess and their cousin gazed at one another in
+amazement. What did it mean? Who was the culprit. How and where had she
+handed him over?
+
+"It's a pity that d'Estreicher isn't down," said the Count. "He is so
+helpful."
+
+The Countess took up the card-board box which d'Estreicher had
+entrusted to her and opened it without more ado. The box contained
+exactly what Dorothy had told them, some white pebbles and shells. Then
+why did d'Estreicher seem to attach so much importance to his finding
+it?
+
+Some one knocked gently at the boudoir door. It was the major-domo, the
+Count's confidential man.
+
+"What is it, Dominique?"
+
+"The château was broken into last night."
+
+"Impossible!" the Count declared in a positive tone. "The doors were
+all locked. Where did they break in?"
+
+"I don't know. But I've found a ladder against the wall by Monsieur
+d'Estreicher's bedroom; and the transom is broken. The criminals made
+their way into the dressing-room and when they had done the job, came
+out through the bedroom door."
+
+"What job?"
+
+"I don't know, sir. I didn't like to go further into the matter by
+myself. I put everything back in its place."
+
+The Count de Chagny drew a hundred-franc note from his pocket.
+
+"Not a word of this, Dominique. Watch the corridor and see that no one
+disturbs us."
+
+Raoul and his wife followed him. The door between d'Estreicher's
+dressing-room and bedroom was half open. The smell of chloroform filled
+the room.
+
+The Count uttered a cry.
+
+On his bed lay d'Estreicher gagged and safely bound to it. His eyes
+were rolling wildly. He was groaning.
+
+Beside him lay the muffler which Dorothy had described as belonging to
+the man who was engaged in making excavations.
+
+On the table, well in sight, lay the sapphire earrings.
+
+But a terrifying, overwhelming sight met the eyes of all three of them
+simultaneously--the irrefutable proof of the murder of Jean d'Argonne
+and the theft of the medal. His right arm, bare, was stretched out
+across the bed, fastened by the wrist. And on that arm they read,
+tattooed:
+
+    _In robore fortuna._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ON THE ROAD
+
+
+Every day, at the easy walk or slack trot of One-eyed Magpie, Dorothy's
+Circus moved on. In the afternoon they gave their performance; after it
+they strolled about those old towns of France, the picturesque charm
+of which appealed so strongly to the young girl. Domfront, Mortain,
+Avranches, Fougères, Vitré, feudal cities, girdled in places by their
+fortifications, or bristling with their ancient keeps.... Dorothy
+visited them with all the emotion of a creature who understands the
+past and evokes it with a passionate enthusiasm.
+
+She visited them alone, even as she walked alone along the high roads,
+with so manifest a desire to keep to herself that the others, while
+watching her with anxious eyes and silently begging for a glance from
+their little mother, did not speak a word to her.
+
+That lasted a week, a very dull week for the children. The pale
+Saint-Quentin walked at the head of One-eyed Magpie as he would have
+walked at the head of a horse drawing a hearse. Castor and Pollux
+fought no longer. As for the captain he buried himself in the perusal
+of his lesson-books and wore himself out over addition and subtraction,
+knowing that Dorothy, the school-mistress of the troupe, as a rule
+deeply appreciated these fits of industry. His efforts were vain.
+Dorothy was thinking of something else.
+
+Every morning, at the first village they went through, she bought a
+newspaper, looked through it and crumpled it up with a movement of
+irritation, as if she had failed to find what she was looking for.
+Saint-Quentin at once picked it up and in his turn ran his eye through
+it. Nothing. Nothing about the crime of which she had informed him in a
+few words. Nothing about the arrest of that infamous d'Estreicher whom
+the two of them had trussed up on his bed.
+
+At last on the eighth day, as the sun shines after unceasing rain,
+the smile appeared. It did not spring from any outside cause. It was
+that life recovered its grip on her. Dorothy's spirit was throwing
+off the distant tragedy in which her father lost his life. She became
+the light-hearted, cheerful, and affectionate Dorothy of old. Castor,
+Pollux, and the captain were smothered with kisses. Saint-Quentin
+was thumped and shaken warmly by the hand. At the performance they
+gave under the ramparts of Vitré she displayed an astonishing energy
+and gayety. And when the audience had departed, she hustled off her
+four comrades on one of those mad rounds which were for them the most
+exquisite of treats.
+
+Saint-Quentin wept with joy:
+
+"I thought you didn't love us any more," he said.
+
+"Why shouldn't I love my four brats any more?"
+
+"Because you're a princess."
+
+"Wasn't I a princess before, idiot?"
+
+In taking them through the narrow streets of old Vitré, amid the huddle
+of wooden houses, roofed with rough tiles, by fits and starts she told
+them for the first time about her early years.
+
+She had always been happy, never having known shackles, boredom, or
+discipline, things which cramp the free instincts and deform the
+disposition. Not that she had been a rebel. She was quite ready to
+submit to rules and obligations, but she had had to choose them
+herself; they had had to be such that her child's reason, already very
+clear and direct, could accept them as just and necessary.
+
+It had been the same with the education she had given herself: she
+had only learnt from others that which it had pleased her to know,
+extracting from the village priest at Argonne all the Latin he knew,
+and letting him keep his catechism to himself; learning many things
+with the schoolmaster, many others from the books she borrowed, and
+very many more from the old couple who farmed her father's land, in
+whose charge her parents had left her.
+
+"I owe most to those two," she said. "But for them I should not know
+what a bird is, or a plant, or a tree--the meaning of real things."
+
+"It wasn't them, however, who taught you to dance on a tight rope and
+manage a circus," said Saint-Quentin, chaffing her.
+
+"I've always danced on the tight rope. Some people are born poets.
+I was born a rope-dancer. Dancing is part of me. I get that from my
+mother who was by no means a theatrical star, but simply a fine little
+dancer, a dancing-girl of the music-halls and the English circus. I see
+her still. She was adorable; she could never keep still; and she loved
+stuffs of gorgeous colors ... and beautiful jewels even more."
+
+"Like you," said Saint-Quentin in a low voice.
+
+"Like me," she said. "Yes: I take an extravagant pleasure in handling
+them and looking at them. I love things that shine. All these stones
+throw out flames which dazzle me. I should like to be very rich in
+order to have very fine ones that I should wear always--on my fingers
+and round my neck."
+
+"And since you will never be rich?"
+
+"Then I shall do without them."
+
+For all that she had been brought up anyhow, deprived of mentors and
+good advice, having only before her eyes as example the frivolous life
+her parents led, she had acquired strong moral principles, always
+maintained a considerable natural dignity, and remained untroubled by
+the reproaches of conscience. That which is evil is evil--no traffic in
+it.
+
+"One is happy," she said, "when one is in perfect agreement with
+good people. I am a good girl. If one lets one's self be guilty of a
+doubtful action, one repeats it without knowing it and one ends by
+yielding to temptation as one picks flowers and fruit over the hedge by
+the roadside."
+
+Dorothy did not pick flowers and fruit over the hedge.
+
+For a long while she went on telling them all about herself.
+Saint-Quentin listened open-mouthed.
+
+"Goodness! Wherever did you learn all that? You're always surprising
+me, Dorothy. And then how do you guess what you do guess? Guess what
+is passing in people's minds? The other day at Roborey, I didn't
+understand what was going on, not a scrap of it."
+
+"Ah, that's quite another matter. It's a need to combine, to organize,
+to command, a need to undertake and to succeed. When I was a child I
+gathered together all the urchins in the village and formed bands.
+I was always the chief of the band. Only the others used to rob the
+farm-yards and kitchen-gardens, and go poaching. With me, it was
+quite the opposite. We used to form a league against an evil-doer
+and hunt for the sheep or duck stolen from an old woman, or again we
+exercised our wits in making inquiries. Oh those inquiries! They were
+my strong point. Before the police could be informed, I would unravel
+an affair in such a way that the country people roundabout came to
+consult the little girl of thirteen or fourteen that I was. 'A perfect
+little witch,' they used to say. Goodness, no! You know as well as I,
+Saint-Quentin, if I sometimes play the clairvoyant or tell fortunes by
+cards, everything I tell people I arrive at from facts which I observe
+and interpret. And I also arrive at those facts, I must admit, by a
+kind of intuition which shows me things under an aspect which does
+not at once appear to other people. Yes, very often I see, before
+comprehending. Then, most complicated affairs appear to me, at the
+first glance, very simple, and I am always astonished that no one has
+picked out such and such a detail which contains in it the whole of the
+truth."
+
+Saint-Quentin, convinced, reflected. He threw back his head:
+
+"That's it! That's it! Nothing escapes you; you think of everything.
+And that's how it came about that the earrings, instead of having
+been stolen by Saint-Quentin, were stolen by d'Estreicher. And it is
+d'Estreicher and not Saint-Quentin who will go to prison because you
+willed it so."
+
+She began to laugh:
+
+"Perhaps I did will it so. But Justice shows no sign of submitting to
+my will. The newspapers do not speak of anything happening. There is no
+mention of the drama of Roborey."
+
+"Then what has become of that scoundrel?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"And won't you be able to learn?"
+
+"Yes," she said confidently.
+
+"How?"
+
+"From Raoul Davernoie."
+
+"You're going to see him then?"
+
+"I've written to him."
+
+"Where to?"
+
+"At Roborey."
+
+"He answered you."
+
+"Yes--a telegram which I went to the Post Office to find before the
+performance."
+
+"And he's going to meet us?"
+
+"Yes. On leaving Roborey and returning home, he is to meet us at Vitré
+at about three o'clock. It's three now."
+
+They had climbed up to a point in the city from which one had a view of
+a road which wound in and out among meadows and woods.
+
+"There," she said. "His car ought not to be long coming into sight.
+That's his road."
+
+"You really believe----"
+
+"I really believe that that excellent young fellow will not miss an
+opportunity of seeing me again," she said, smiling.
+
+Saint-Quentin, always rather jealous and easily upset, sighed:
+
+"All the people you talk to are like that, obliging and full of
+attention."
+
+They waited several minutes. A car came into sight between two hedges.
+They went forward and so came close to the caravan round which the
+three urchins were playing.
+
+Presently the car came up the ascent and emerged from a turning, driven
+by Raoul Davernoie. Running to meet him and preventing him by a gesture
+from getting out of the car, Dorothy called out to him:
+
+"Well, what has happened? Arrested?"
+
+"Who? D'Estreicher?" said Raoul, a little taken aback by this greeting.
+
+"D'Estreicher of course.... He has been handed over to the police,
+hasn't he? He's under lock and key?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"He escaped."
+
+The answer gave her a shock.
+
+"D'Estreicher free!... Free to act!... It's frightful!"
+
+And under her breath she muttered:
+
+"Good heavens! Why--why didn't I stay? I should have prevented this
+escape."
+
+But repining was of no avail and Dorothy was not the girl to waste
+much time on it. Without further delay she began to question the young
+man.
+
+"Why did you stay on at the château?"
+
+"To be exact--because of d'Estreicher."
+
+"Granted. But an hour after his escape you ought to have started for
+home."
+
+"For what reason?"
+
+"Your grandfather.... I warned you at Roborey."
+
+Raoul Davernoie protested:
+
+"First of all I have written to him to be on his guard for reasons
+which I would explain to him. And then, as a matter of fact, the risk
+that he runs is a trifle problematical."
+
+"In what way? He is the possessor of that indispensable key to the
+treasure, the gold medal. D'Estreicher knows it. And you do not believe
+in his danger."
+
+"But this key to the treasure, d'Estreicher also possesses it, since on
+the day he murdered your father, he stole the gold medal from him."
+
+Dorothy stood beside the door of the car, her hand on the handle to
+prevent Raoul from opening it.
+
+"Start at once, I beg you. I certainly don't understand the whole of
+the affair. Is d'Estreicher, who already is the possessor of the medal,
+going to try to steal a second? Has the one he stole from my father
+been stolen from him by an accomplice? As yet I don't know anything
+about it. But I am certain that from now on the real ground of the
+struggle is younder, at your home. I'm so sure of it that I'm going
+there myself as well. Look: here is my road-map. Hillocks Manor near
+Clisson--still nearly a hundred miles to go--eight stages for the
+caravan. Be off; you will get there to-night. I shall be there in eight
+days."
+
+Dominated by her, he gave way.
+
+"Perhaps you're right. I ought to have thought of all this
+myself--especially since my father will be alone to-night."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Yes. All the servants are keeping holiday. One of them is getting
+married at a neighboring village."
+
+She started.
+
+"Does d'Estreicher know?"
+
+"I think so. I fancy I spoke of this fête before him, during my stay at
+Roborey."
+
+"And when did he escape?"
+
+"The day before yesterday."
+
+"So since the day before yesterday----"
+
+She did not finish the sentence. She ran to the caravan, up the
+steps, into it. Almost on the instant she came out of it with a small
+suit-case and a cloak.
+
+"I'm off," she said. "I'm coming with you. There isn't a moment to be
+lost!"
+
+She cranked up the engine herself, giving her orders the while:
+
+"I give the car and the three children into your charge, Saint-Quentin.
+Follow the red line I have drawn on the map. Double stages--no
+performances. You can be there in five days."
+
+She took the seat beside Davernoie. The car was already starting when
+she caught up the captain who was stretching out his hands to her. She
+dropped him among the portmanteaux and bags in the tonneau.
+
+"There--keep quiet. Au revoir, Saint-Quentin, Castor and Pollux--no
+fighting!"
+
+She waved good-bye to them.
+
+The whole scene had not lasted three minutes.
+
+Raoul Davernoie's car was by way of being an old, old model. Therefore
+its pace was but moderate, and Raoul, delighted to be taking with him
+this charming creature, who was also his cousin, and his relations with
+whom, thanks to what had happened, were uncommonly intimate, was able
+to relate in detail what had taken place, the manner of their finding
+d'Estreicher, and the incidents of his captivity.
+
+"What saved him," said he, "was a rather deep wound he had made in his
+head by striking it against the iron bed-head in his efforts to rid
+himself of his bonds. He lost a lot of blood. Fever declared itself;
+and my cousin de Chagny--you must have noticed that he is of a timid
+disposition--at once said to us:
+
+"'That gives us time.'"
+
+"Time for what?" I asked him.
+
+"'Time to think things over. You understand clearly enough that all
+this is going to give rise to an unheard-of scandal, and one which, for
+the honor of our families, we might perhaps be able to avoid.'"
+
+"I opposed any delay. I wanted them to telephone at once to the police.
+But de Chagny was in his own house, you know. And the days passed
+waiting for him to come to a decision which he could not bring himself
+to make. They had told the servants that d'Estreicher was ill. Only
+the major-domo was in our confidence, brought him his food, and kept
+guard over him. Besides, the prisoner seemed so feeble. You would have
+declared that he had no strength left. How was one to distrust so sick
+a man?"
+
+Dorothy asked:
+
+"But what explanation of his conduct did he give?"
+
+"None, because we didn't question him."
+
+"Didn't he speak of me? Didn't he make any accusations against me?"
+
+"No. He went on playing the part of a sick man, prostrated by pain and
+fever. During this time de Chagny wrote to Paris for information about
+him, for after all, his relations with his cousin only went back as far
+as 1915.
+
+"Three days ago we received a telegram which said:
+
+    "'_A very dangerous man. Wanted by the police. Letters follows._'
+
+"At once de Chagny came to a decision and the day before yesterday, in
+the morning, he telephoned to the police. When the inspector arrived,
+he was too late. D'Estreicher had fled."
+
+"Doubtless through the window of a pantry which looks down on the
+ravine?" said Dorothy.
+
+"Yes, and down a fissure in the face of the cliff. How did you know?"
+
+"It was the way Saint-Quentin and I took to get at d'Estreicher."
+
+And forthwith, cutting short any questions, she added:
+
+"Well, what was the information you got about him?"
+
+"Extremely serious. Antoine d'Estreicher, formerly a naval officer,
+was dismissed the service for theft. Later, prosecuted for being an
+accomplice in a case of murder, he was released for lack of evidence.
+At the beginning of the war he deserted. Evidence of it has come to
+hand and a fortnight ago an inquiry into the matter was begun. During
+the war he borrowed the personality of one of his relations, who had
+been dead some years; and it is actually under his new name of Maxime
+d'Estreicher that the police are hunting for him."
+
+"What a pity! A scoundrel like that! To have him in one's hands and let
+him go!"
+
+"We will find him again."
+
+"Yes: always providing that it isn't too late."
+
+Raoul quickened their pace. They were going at a fair rate, running
+through the villages without slackening their pace and bumping over the
+cobbles of the towns. The night was beginning to fall when they reached
+Nantes, where they had to stop to buy petrol.
+
+"Still an hour's journey," said Raoul.
+
+On the way she made him explain to her the exact topography of Hillocks
+Manor, the direction of the road which ran through the orchard to the
+house, the position of the hall and staircase. Moreover, he had to give
+her full information about his grandfather's habits, about the old
+man's age (he was seventy-five), and his dog Goliath--a huge beast,
+terrible to look at, with a terrific bark, but quite harmless and
+incapable of defending his master.
+
+At the big market-town of Clisson, they entered La Vendée. When they
+had nearly reached the Manor Raoul would have liked to make a detour
+through the village where they would find the servants. They could take
+with them a couple of farm-laborers. Dorothy would not hear of it.
+
+"But, after all," he exclaimed, "what are you afraid of?"
+
+"Everything," she replied. "From that man--everything. We have no right
+to lose a minute."
+
+They left the main road and turned down a lane which was more like a
+deep-rutted cart-track.
+
+"There it is, over yonder," he said. "There is a light in the window of
+his room."
+
+Almost at once he stopped the car and jumped out of it. A turreted
+gateway, relic of a far-removed epoch, rose in the high wall which
+encircled the estate. The gate was shut. While Raoul was engaged in
+opening it, they heard, dominating the dull noise of the engine, the
+barking of a dog.
+
+From the clearness of the sound and the direction from which it came
+Raoul declared that Goliath was not inside the Manor, but outside
+it, at the foot of the steps, also that he was barking in front of a
+shut-up house.
+
+"Well, are you never going to open that gate?" cried Dorothy.
+
+He came back hurriedly to her.
+
+"It's very disquieting. Some one has shot the bolt and turned the key
+in the lock."
+
+"Don't they always?"
+
+"Never. Some stranger has done it.... And then you hear that barking."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"There's another gate two hundred yards further on."
+
+"And suppose that's locked too. No: we must act at once."
+
+She moved to the steering-wheel and drove the car close under the wall
+a little higher up, to the right of the gateway. Then she piled the
+four cushions on the seat and stood on the top of them.
+
+"Montfaucon!" she called.
+
+The Captain understood. In half-a-dozen movements he climbed up
+Dorothy's back and stood upright on her shoulders. With that advantage
+his hands touched the top of the wall. Clinging to it, with Dorothy's
+help, he pulled himself up. When he was astride it, Raoul threw a rope
+to him. He tied one end round his waist, Dorothy held the other. In a
+few seconds the child touched the ground on the other side of the wall,
+and Raoul had barely got back to the gate before the key grated in the
+lock and the bolts were drawn.
+
+Raoul did not get back to the car. He dashed across the orchard,
+followed by Dorothy and the Captain. As she ran she said to the child:
+
+"Go round the house and if you see a ladder against it, pull it down!"
+
+As they expected, they found Goliath on the steps scratching at the
+closed door. They made him stop barking and in the silence they heard
+above them outcries and the sound of a struggle.
+
+Instantly, to frighten the assailant, Raoul fired off his revolver.
+Then with his latch-key he opened the door; and they ran up the stairs.
+
+One of the rooms facing them was lighted by two lamps. On the floor,
+face downwards, Raoul's grandfather was writhing and uttering faint,
+hoarse cries.
+
+Raoul dropped on his knees beside him. Dorothy seized one of the lamps
+and ran into the room on the opposite side of the corridor. She had
+noticed that the door of it was open.
+
+The room was empty; through the open window stuck the top of a ladder.
+
+She leant out:
+
+"Montfaucon!"
+
+"Here I am, mummy," the child replied.
+
+"Did you see any one come down the ladder and run away?"
+
+"From a distance, mummy--as I came round the corner of the house."
+
+"Did you recognize the man?"
+
+"The man was two, mummy."
+
+"Ah, there were two, were there?"
+
+"Yes ... another man ... and the nasty gentleman."
+
+Raoul's grandfather was not dead; he was not even in any danger
+of dying. From certain details of the conflict it looked as if
+d'Estreicher and his confederate had tried by threats and violence to
+force the old man to reveal what he knew, and doubtless to hand over
+the gold piece. In particular his throat showed red finger-marks where
+they had gripped it. Had the ruffian and his confederate succeeded at
+the last moment?
+
+The servants were not very late getting back. The doctor was summoned
+and declared that there was no fear of any complications. But in the
+course of the next day they found that the old man did not answer
+any questions, did not appear to understand them, and only expressed
+himself by an incomprehensible stuttering.
+
+The agitation, terror, and suffering had been too much for him.... He
+was mad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE HOUR DRAWS NEAR
+
+
+In the flat country, in which stands Hillocks Manor, a deep gorge
+has been hollowed out by the river Maine. This gorge rings round the
+meadows and orchards and buildings of the Manor. Hillocks, humped with
+rocks and covered with fir-trees, rise in a semicircle at the back
+of the estate, and a backwater of the Maine, cutting the ring and
+isolating the hillocks, has formed a pleasant lake, which reflects the
+dark stones and red bricks and tiles of the ancient building.
+
+To-day that building is by way of being a farm. Part of the
+ground-floor is used for storerooms and barns, evidence of a wider
+cultivation, formerly flourishing, but very much fallen off since the
+days when Raoul's grandfather made it his business in life.
+
+The old Baron, as they called him, had a right to the title and to the
+apostrophe since the property, before the Revolution, formed the barony
+d'Avernoie. A great sportsman, a fine figure of a man, and fond of wine
+and women, he had very little liking for work; and his son, Raoul's
+father, inheriting this distaste, had in his manner of life shown an
+equal lack of care for the future.
+
+"I have done what I could, once I was demobilized," Raoul confided to
+Dorothy, "to restore prosperity here; and up-hill work it has been.
+But what would you? My father and my grandfather lived their lives
+in the assurance, which evidently sprang from those legends you have
+heard of: 'One of these days we shall be rich. So why worry?' And
+they did not worry. Actually we are in the hands of a money-lender
+who has bought up all our debts; and I have just heard that during my
+stay at Roborey my grandfather signed a bill of sale which gives that
+money-lender the power to turn us out of the house in six weeks."
+
+He was an excellent young fellow, a trifle slow-witted, rather awkward
+in manner, but of an upright disposition, serious and thoughtful. The
+charm of Dorothy had made an instant conquest of him, and in spite of
+an invincible timidity which had always prevented him from putting into
+words his deeper feelings, he did not hide either his admiration or the
+fact that she had robbed him of his peace of mind. Everything that she
+said charmed him. Everything that she bade him do was done.
+
+Following her advice he made no secret of the assault of which his
+grandfather had been the victim and lodged a complaint against this
+unknown criminal. To the people about him he talked openly about
+the fortune which he expected to come to him shortly and of the
+investigations on foot to discover a gold medal, the possession of
+which was the first condition of obtaining it. Without revealing
+Dorothy's name, he did not conceal the fact that she was a distant
+cousin, or the reasons which brought her to the Manor.
+
+Three days later, having screwed double stages out of One-eyed Magpie,
+Saint-Quentin arrived in company with Castor and Pollux. Dorothy would
+not hear of any abode but her beloved caravan, which was installed in
+the middle of the court-yard; and once more the five comrades settled
+down to their happy, careless life. Castor and Pollux fought with less
+vigor. Saint-Quentin fished in the lake. The captain, always immensely
+consequential, took the old baron under his care and related to him and
+to Goliath interminable yarns.
+
+As for Dorothy, she was observing. They found that she wore an air of
+mystery, keeping her thoughts and proceedings to herself. She spent
+hours playing with her comrades superintending their exercises. Then,
+her eyes fixed on the old baron, who, accompanied by his faithful dog,
+with tottering gait and dulled eyes, would go and lean against a tree
+in the orchard, she watched everything which might be a manifestation
+of instinct in him or of a survival of the past. At other times Raoul
+surprised her in some corner, motionless and silent. It seemed to him
+then as if the whole affair was confined to her brain, and that it was
+there, much more than on the estate of Hillocks Manor that she was
+looking for the guiding clue.
+
+Several days in succession she spent the hours in the loft of a granary
+where there were some bookshelves, and on them, old newspapers, bundles
+of papers, pamphlets, printed during the last century, histories of the
+district, communal reports, and parish records.
+
+"Well," asked Raoul, laughing. "Are we getting on? I have an
+impression that your eyes are beginning to see more clearly."
+
+"Perhaps. I won't say that they aren't."
+
+The eyes of Dorothy! In that combination of charming things her face,
+it was they above everything which held one's attention. Large,
+almond-shaped and lengthened in the shadow of their black lashes,
+they surprised one by the inconceivable diversity of their coloring
+and expression: of the blue which changed like the blue of the sea
+according to the hour and the light; of a blue which seemed to vary
+with the successive thoughts which changed her expression. And these
+eyes, so delightful that it seemed that they must always be smiling
+or laughing, were in moments of meditation the gravest eyes that ever
+were, when she half-closed and fixed them on some image in her mind.
+
+Raoul, now, only saw through them, and was only really interested in
+what they expressed. The fabulous story of the treasure and the medal
+was wholly summed up for him in the charming spectacle afforded by two
+beautiful eyes observant or thoughtful, troubled or joyful. And perhaps
+Dorothy allowed herself to be observed with a certain satisfaction. The
+love of this big, shy young fellow touched her by its respectfulness,
+she who had only known hitherto the brutal homage of desire.
+
+One day she made him take a seat in the little boat which was moored to
+the shore of the lake, and letting it drift with the current she said
+to him:
+
+"We are drawing near."
+
+"Near what?" he asked, startled.
+
+"The hour which so many things have so long foretold."
+
+"You believe?"
+
+"I believe that you made no mistake the day on which you saw in your
+grandfather's hands that gold medal in which all the traditions of the
+family seem to be summed up. Unfortunately the poor man lost his reason
+before you were put in possession of the facts; and the thread which
+bound the past to the future has been broken."
+
+"Then what do you hope for, if we do not find that medal? We've
+searched everywhere, his room, his clothes, the house, the orchard, and
+found nothing."
+
+"It is impossible that he should keep to himself forever the answer to
+the enigma. If his reason is dead, his instincts survive. And what an
+instinct that is that centuries have been forming! Doubtless he has
+put the coin within reach, or within sight. You may be sure that he
+has hidden it in such a way that no execrable piece of bad luck could
+rob him of it without his being aware of it. But don't worry: at the
+appointed hour some unconscious gesture will reveal the truth to us."
+
+Raoul objected.
+
+"But what if d'Estreicher took it from him?"
+
+"He did not. If he had, we should not have heard the noise of the
+struggle. Your grandfather resisted to the end; and it was only our
+coming which put d'Estreicher to flight."
+
+"Oh, that ruffian! If only I had him in my hands!" exclaimed Raoul.
+
+The boat was drifting gently. Dorothy said in a very low voice, barely
+moving her lips:
+
+"Not so loud! He can hear us."
+
+"What! What do you mean?"
+
+"I say that he is close by and that he doesn't lose a single word of
+what we say," she went on in the same low voice.
+
+Raoul was dumfounded.
+
+"But--but--what does it mean? Can you see him?"
+
+"No. But I can feel his presence; and he can see us."
+
+"Where from?"
+
+"From some place among the hillocks. I have been thinking that this
+name of Hillocks Manor pointed to some inpenetrable hiding-place, and
+I've discovered a proof of it in one of those old books, which actually
+speaks of a hiding-place where the Vendéans lay hid, and says that it
+is believed to be in the neighborhood of Tiffauges and Clisson."
+
+"But how should d'Estreicher have learnt of it?"
+
+"Remember that the day of the assault your grandfather was alone, or
+believed himself to be alone. Strolling among the hillocks, he would
+have disclosed one of the entrances. D'Estreicher was watching him at
+the time. And since then the rascal had been using it as a refuge.
+
+"Look at the ground, all humps and ravines. On the right, on the left,
+everywhere, there are places in the rock for observations, so to speak,
+from which one can hear and see everything that takes place inside the
+boundaries of the estate. D'Estreicher is there."
+
+"What is he doing?"
+
+"He's searching and, what's more, he is keeping an eye on my
+investigations. He also--for all that I can't guess exactly the
+reason--wants the gold medal. And he is afraid that I shall get it
+before him."
+
+"But we must inform the police!"
+
+"Not yet. This underground hiding-place should have several issues,
+some of which perhaps run under the river. If we give the ruffian
+warning, he will escape."
+
+"Then what's your plan?"
+
+"To get him to come out of this lair and trap him."
+
+"How?"
+
+"I'll tell you at the appointed time, and that will not be long. I
+repeat: the hour draws near."
+
+"What proof have you?"
+
+"This," she said. "I have seen the money-lender, Monsieur Voirin, and
+he showed me the bill of sale. If by five o'clock on July 31st Monsieur
+Voirin, who has desired all his life to acquire the Manor, has not
+received the sum of three hundred thousand francs in cash or government
+securities, the Manor becomes his property."
+
+"I know," said he. "And it will break my heart to go away from here."
+
+She protested:
+
+"There's no question of your going away from here."
+
+"Why not? There's no reason why I should become rich in a month."
+
+"Yes, there is a reason, the reason which has always sustained your
+grandfather, the reason which made him act as he did on this occasion,
+which made him say to old Voirin--I repeat the money-lender's words:
+'Don't get bucked about this, Voirin. On the 31st of July I shall pay
+you in cash.' This is the first time that we are face to face with a
+precise fact. Up to now words and a confused tradition. To-day a fact.
+A fact which proves that, according to your grandfather all the legends
+which turn round these promised riches come to a head on a certain day
+in the month of July."
+
+The boat touched the bank. Dorothy sprang lightly ashore and cried
+without fear of being heard:
+
+"Raoul, to-day's the 27th of June. In a few weeks you will be rich; and
+I too. And d'Estreicher will be hanged high and dry as I predicted to
+his face."
+
+That very evening Dorothy slipped out of the Manor and furtively made
+her way to a lane which ran between very tall hedges. After an hour's
+walking she came to a little garden at the bottom of which a light was
+shining.
+
+Her private investigations had brought to her knowledge the name of an
+old lady, Juliet Assire, whom the gossip of the countryside declared
+to be one of the old flames of the Baron. Before his attack, the Baron
+paid her a visit, for all that she was deaf, in poor health, and rather
+feeble-witted. Moreover, thanks to the lack of discretion of the maid
+who looked after her and whom Saint-Quentin had questioned, Dorothy had
+learnt that Juliet Assire was the possessor of a medal of the kind they
+were searching for at the Manor.
+
+Dorothy had formed the plan of taking advantage of the maid's weekly
+evening out to knock at the door and question Juliet Assire. But
+Fortune decided otherwise. The door was not locked, and when she
+stepped over the threshold of the low and comfortable sitting-room, she
+perceived the old lady asleep in the lamplight, her head bent over the
+canvas which she was engaged in embroidering.
+
+"Suppose I look for it?" thought Dorothy. "What's the use of asking her
+questions she won't answer?"
+
+She looked round her, examined the prints hanging on the wall, the
+clock under its glass case, the candlesticks.
+
+Further on an inner staircase led up to the bedrooms. She was moving
+towards it when the door creaked. On the instant she was certain that
+d'Estreicher was about to appear. Had he followed her?... Had he by
+any chance brought her there by a combination of machinations? She was
+frightened and thought only of flight.... The staircase? The rooms on
+the first floor.... She hadn't the time! Near her was a glass door....
+Doubtless it led to the kitchen.... And from there to the back door
+through which she could escape.
+
+She went through it and at once found out her mistake. She was in a
+dark closet, a cupboard rather, against the boards of which she had to
+flatten herself before she could get the door shut. She found herself a
+prisoner.
+
+At that moment the door of the room opened, very quietly. Two men came
+cautiously into it; and immediately one of them whispered:
+
+"The old woman's asleep."
+
+Through the glass, which was covered by a torn curtain, Dorothy easily
+recognized d'Estreicher, in spite of his turned-up coat-collar and the
+flaps of his cap, which were tied under his chin. His confederate in
+like manner had hidden half his face in a muffler.
+
+"That damsel does make you play the fool," he said.
+
+"Play the fool? Not a bit of it!" growled d'Estreicher. "I'm keeping an
+eye on her, that's all."
+
+"Rot! You're always shadowing her. You're losing your head about
+her.... You'll go on doing it till the day she helps you to lose it for
+good."
+
+"I don't say, no. She nearly succeeded in doing it at Roberey. But I
+need her."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For the medal. She's the only person capable of laying her hands on
+it."
+
+"Not here--in any case. We've already searched the house twice."
+
+"Badly, without a doubt, since she is coming to it. At least when we
+caught sight of her she was certainly coming in this direction. The
+chatter of the maid has sent her here; and she has chosen the night
+when the old woman would be alone."
+
+"You are stuck on your little pet."
+
+"I'm stuck on her," growled d'Estreicher. "Only let me lay my hands on
+her, and I swear the little devil won't forget it in a hurry!"
+
+Dorothy shivered. There was in the accents of this man a hate and at
+the same time a violence of desire which terrified her.
+
+He was silent, posted behind the door, listening for her coming.
+
+Several minutes passed. Juliet Assire still slept, her hand hanging
+lower and lower over her work.
+
+At last d'Estreicher muttered:
+
+"She isn't coming. She must have turned off somewhere."
+
+"Ah well, let's clear out," said his accomplice.
+
+"No."
+
+"Have you got an idea?"
+
+"A determination--to find the medal."
+
+"But since we've already searched the house twice----"
+
+"We went about it the wrong way. We must change our methods.... All the
+worse for the old woman!"
+
+He banged the table at the risk of waking Juliet Assire.
+
+"After all, it's too silly! The maid distinctly said: 'There's a medal
+in the house, the kind of thing they're looking for at the Manor.' Then
+let's make use of the opportunity, what? What failed in the case of the
+Baron may succeed to-day."
+
+"What? You'd----"
+
+"Make her speak--yes. As I tried to make the Baron speak. Only, she's a
+woman, she is."
+
+D'Estreicher had taken off his cap. His evil face wore an expression
+of savage cruelty. He went to the door, locked it, and put the key in
+his pocket. Then he came back to the arm-chair in which the good lady
+was sleeping, gazed at her a moment and of a sudden fell upon her,
+gripping her throat, and thrust her backwards against the back of the
+chair.
+
+His confederate chuckled:
+
+"You needn't give yourself all that trouble. If you squeeze too hard,
+you'll kill the poor old thing."
+
+D'Estreicher opened his fingers a little. The old woman opened her eyes
+wide and uttered a low groan.
+
+"Speak!" d'Estreicher commanded. "The Baron intrusted a medal to you.
+Where have you put it?"
+
+Juliet Assire did not clearly understand what was happening to her. She
+struggled. Exasperated, he shook her.
+
+"Will you prattle? Hey? Where's your old sweetheart's medal? He gave it
+to you all right. Don't say he didn't, you old hag! Your maid's telling
+everybody who cares to listen to her. Come, speak up. If you don't----"
+
+He picked one of the iron fire-dogs with copper knobs from the
+hearthstone and brandished it crying:
+
+"One ... two ... three.... At twenty I'll crack your skull!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ON THE IRON WIRE
+
+
+The door behind which Dorothy was hiding herself shut badly. Having
+pushed it to gently, she not only saw but heard everything that took
+place, except that the face of Juliet Assire remained hidden from her.
+The ruffian's threat did not trouble her much, for she knew that he
+would not put it into execution. In fact d'Estreicher counted up to
+twenty without the old woman having uttered a word. But her resistance
+infuriated him to such a degree that, dropping the mass of iron, he
+seized the hand of Juliet Assire and twisted it violently. Juliet
+Assire yelled with pain.
+
+"Ah, you're beginning to understand, are you?" he said. "Perhaps you'll
+answer.... Where is the medal?"
+
+She was silent.
+
+He gave her hand another twist.
+
+The old woman fell on her knees and begged for mercy incoherently.
+
+"Speak!" he cried. "Speak! I'll go on twisting till you speak!"
+
+She stammered several syllables.
+
+"What's that you say? Speak more distinctly, will you? Do you want me
+to give it another twist?"
+
+"No ... no," she implored. "It's there ... at the Manor ... in the
+river."
+
+"In the river? What nonsense! You threw it into the river? You're
+laughing at me!"
+
+He held her down with one knee on her chest, their hands clenched
+round one another. From her post of observation Dorothy watched them,
+horror-stricken, powerless against these two men, but nevertheless
+unable to resign herself to inaction.
+
+"Then I'll twist it, what?" growled the ruffian. "You prefer it to
+speaking?"
+
+He made a quick movement which drew a cry from Juliet Assire. And all
+at once she raised herself, showed her face convulsed with terror,
+moved her lips, and succeeded in stuttering:
+
+"The c--c--cupboard ... the cupboard ... the flagstones."
+
+The sentence was never finished, though the mouth continued to move,
+but a strange thing happened: her frightful face little by little grew
+calm, assumed an ineffable serenity, became happy, smiling; and of a
+sudden Juliet Assire burst out laughing. She no longer felt the torture
+of her twisted wrist and she laughed gently, not jerkily, with an
+expression of beatitude.
+
+She was mad.
+
+"You've no luck," said his confederate in a mocking tone. "Directly
+you try to make people speak, they collapse--the Baron, cracked; his
+sweetheart, mad as a hatter. You're doing well."
+
+The exasperated d'Estreicher thrust away the old woman who stumbled
+and turning fell down behind an arm-chair quite close to Dorothy, and
+cried furiously.
+
+"You're right, my luck's out. But this time perhaps we've found a lode.
+Before her brain gave she spoke of a cupboard and flagstones. Which?
+This one or that? They're both paved with flags?"
+
+He pointed first to the kind of closet in which Dorothy was hiding and
+then to a cupboard on the other side of the fireplace.
+
+"I'll begin with this cupboard. You start on that one," he said. "Or
+rather, no--come and help me; we'll go through this one thoroughly
+first."
+
+He knelt down near the fireplace, opened the cupboard door, and with
+the poker got to work on one of the cracks between the flags of its
+floor which his accomplice tried to raise.
+
+Dorothy lost no time. She knew that they were coming to the closet
+and that she was lost if she did not fly. The old woman, stretched
+out close to her, was laughing gently and then grew silent as the men
+worked on.
+
+Hidden by the arm-chair, Dorothy slipped noiselessly out of the
+cupboard, took off the lace cap which covered the hair of Juliet Assire
+and put it on her own head. Then she took her spectacles, then her
+shawl, put it round her shoulders, and succeeded in hiding her figure
+with a big table-cloth of black serge. At that moment Juliet fell
+silent. On the instant Dorothy took up her even, joyous laughter. She
+rose, and stooping like an old woman, ambled across the room.
+
+D'Estreicher growled: "What's the old lunatic up to? Mind she doesn't
+get away."
+
+"How _can_ she get away?" asked his confederate. "You've got the key in
+your pocket."
+
+"The window."
+
+"Much too high. Besides she doesn't want to leave the cottage."
+
+Dorothy slipped in front of the window, the sill of which, uncommonly
+high up, was on a level with her eyes. The shutters were not closed.
+With a slow movement she succeeded in turning the catch. Then she
+paused. She knew that directly it was opened the window would let in
+the fresh air and the noises outside, and give the ruffians warning. In
+a few seconds she calculated and analyzed the movements she would need
+to make. Sure of herself and relying on her extraordinary agility, she
+took a look at her enemies; then swiftly, without a single mistake or a
+second's hesitation, she threw the window wide, jumped on to the sill,
+and from it into the garden.
+
+There came two shouts together, then a hubbub of cries. But it took
+the two men time to understand, to stumble upon the body of the real
+Juliet and discover it was she, to unlock the door. Dorothy made use
+of it. Too clever to escape down the garden and through the gate, she
+ran round the cottage, jumped down a slope, scratched herself among the
+thorns of a hedge, and came out into the fields.
+
+As she did so pistol-shots rang out. D'Estreicher and his confederate
+were firing at the shadows.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Dorothy had rejoined Raoul and the children, who, alarmed by her
+absence, were waiting for her at the door of the caravan, and had told
+them briefly about her expedition, she ended:
+
+"And now we're going to make an end of it. The final hand will be
+played in exactly a week from to-day."
+
+These few days were very sweet to the two young people. While still
+remaining shy, Raoul grew bolder in his talks with her and let her
+see more clearly the depths of his nature, at once serious and
+impassioned. Dorothy abandoned herself with a certain joy to this love,
+of the sincerity of which she was fully conscious. Deeply disturbed,
+Saint-Quentin and his comrades grew uncommonly gloomy.
+
+The captain tossed his head and said:
+
+"Dorothy, I think I like this one less than the nasty gentleman, and if
+you'd listen to me...."
+
+"What should we do, my lamb?"
+
+"We'd harness One-eye' Magpie and go away."
+
+"And the treasure? You know we're hunting for treasure."
+
+"You're the treasure, mummy. And I'm afraid that they'll take you away
+from us."
+
+"Don't you worry, my child. My four children will always come first."
+
+But the four children did worry. The sense of danger weighed on them.
+In this confined space, between the walls of Hillocks Manor they
+breathed a heavy atmosphere which troubled them. Raoul was the chief
+danger: but another danger was little by little taking form in their
+minds: twice they saw the outline of a man moving stealthily among the
+thickets of the hillocks in the dusk.
+
+On the 30th of June, Dorothy begged Raoul to give all his staff a
+holiday next day. It was the day of the great religious fête at
+Clisson. Three of the stoutest of the servants, armed with guns, were
+ordered to come back surreptitiously at four in the afternoon and wait
+near a little inn, Masson Inn, a quarter of a mile from the Manor.
+
+Next day Dorothy seemed in higher spirits than ever. She danced jigs in
+the court-yard and sang English songs. She sang others in the boat, in
+which she had asked Raoul to row her, and then behaved so wildly, that
+several times they just missed capsizing. In this way it came about
+that in juggling with three coral bracelets she let one of them fall
+into the water. She wanted to recover it, dipped her bare arm in the
+water as high as the shoulder, and remained motionless, her head bent
+over the lake, as if she was considering carefully something she saw on
+its bottom.
+
+"What are you looking at like that?" said Raoul.
+
+"There has been no rain for a long while, the lake is low, and one can
+see more distinctly the stones and pebbles on the bottom. Now I've
+already noticed that some of the stones are arranged in a certain
+pattern. Look."
+
+"Undoubtedly," he said. "And they've hewn stones, shaped. One might
+fancy that they formed huge letters. Have you noticed it?"
+
+"Yes. And one can guess the words that those letters form: '_In robore
+fortuna._' At the mayor's office I've studied an old map of the
+neighborhood. Here, where we are, was formerly the principal lawn of a
+sunken garden, and on this very lawn one of your ancestors had this
+device inscribed in blocks of stone. Since then some one has let in the
+water of the Maine over the sunken garden. The pool has taken the place
+of the lawn. The device is hidden."
+
+And she added between her teeth:
+
+"And so are the few words and the figures below the device, which I
+have not yet been able to see. And it's that which interests me. Do you
+see them?"
+
+"Yes. But indistinctly."
+
+"That's just it. We're too near them. We need to look at them from a
+height."
+
+"Let's climb up on the hillocks."
+
+"No use. The slope--the water would blur the image."
+
+"Then," said he, laughing, "we must mount above them in an aëroplane."
+
+At lunch-time they parted. After the meal, Raoul superintended the
+departure of the _char-à-bancs_, which were taking all the staff of
+the Manor to Clisson, then he took his way to the pool where he saw
+Dorothy's little troupe hard at work on the bank. The captain, always
+the man of affairs, was running to and fro somewhat in the manner of a
+Gugusse. The others were carrying out exactly Dorothy's instructions.
+
+When it was all over, a sufficiently thick iron wire was stretched
+above the lake at a height of ten or twelve feet, fastened at one end
+to the gable of a barn, at the other to a ring affixed to a rock among
+the hillocks.
+
+"Hang it all!" he said. "It looks to me as if you'd made preparations
+for one of your circus turns."
+
+"You're right," she replied gayly. "Having no aëroplane I fall back on
+my aërial rope-walking."
+
+"What? Is that what you intend to do?" he exclaimed in anxious accents.
+"But you're bound to fall."
+
+"I can swim."
+
+"No, no. I refuse to allow it."
+
+"By what right?"
+
+"You haven't even a balancing-pole."
+
+"A balancing-pole?" she said, running off. "And what next? A net? A
+safety-rope?"
+
+She climbed up the ladder inside the barn and appeared on the edge
+of the roof. She was laughing, as was her custom when she began her
+performance before a crowd. She was dressed in a silk frock, with broad
+white and red stripes, a scarlet silk handkerchief was crossed over her
+chest.
+
+Raoul was in a state of feverish excitement.
+
+The captain went to him.
+
+"Do you want to help mummy, Dorothy?" he said in a confidential tone.
+
+"Certainly I do."
+
+"Well, go away, monsieur."
+
+Dorothy stretched out her leg. Her foot, which was bare in a cloth
+sandal divided at the big toe, tried the wire, as a bather's foot tries
+the coldness of the water. And then she quickly stepped on to it, made
+several steps, sliding, and stopped.
+
+She saluted right and left, pretending to believe herself in the
+presence of a large audience, and came sliding forward again with a
+regular, rhythmic movement of her legs and a swaying of her bust and
+arms which balanced her like the beating of the wings of a bird. So she
+arrived above the pool. The wire, slackened, bent under her weight and
+jerked upwards. A second time she stopped, when she was over the middle
+of the pool.
+
+This was the hardest part of her undertaking. She was no longer able to
+hook, so to speak, her gaze on a fixed point among the hillocks, and
+lend her balance the support of something stable. She had to lower her
+eyes and try to read, in the moving and glittering water, repelling
+the fascination of the sun's reflection, the words and the figures.
+A terribly dangerous task! She had to essay it several times and to
+rise upright the very moment she found herself bending over the void.
+A minute or two passed, minutes of veritable anguish. She brought them
+to an end by a salute with both arms, stretching them out with even
+gracefulness, and a cry of victory; then she at once walked on again.
+
+Raoul had crossed the bridge which spans the end of the pool and he was
+already on a kind of platform among the hillocks, at which the wire
+ended. She was struck by his paleness and touched by his anxiety on her
+account.
+
+"Goodness," she said, gripping his hand. "Were you as frightened as
+that on my account?... If I'd only known!... And yet, no": she went on.
+"Even if I had known, I should have made the experiment, so certain was
+I of the result."
+
+"Well?" he said.
+
+"Well, I read the device distinctly, and the date under it, which we
+couldn't make out--the 12th of July, 1921. We know now that the 12th
+of July of this year is the great day foretold so many years ago. But
+there's something better, I fancy."
+
+She called Saint-Quentin to her and said some words to him in a low
+voice. Saint-Quentin ran to the caravan and a few minutes came out of
+it in his acrobat's tights. He stepped into the boat with Dorothy, who
+rowed it to the middle of the pool. He slipped quickly into the water
+and dived. Twice he came up to receive more exact instructions from
+Dorothy. At last, the third time he came up, he cried:
+
+"Here it is, mummy!"
+
+He tossed into the boat a somewhat heavy object. Dorothy snatched it
+up, examined it, and when they reached the bank, handed it to Raoul. It
+was a metal disc, of rusted iron or copper, of the size of a saucer,
+and convex--like an enormous watch. It must have been formed of two
+plates joined together, but the edges of these plates had been soldered
+together so that one could not open it.
+
+Dorothy rubbed one of its faces and pointed out to Raoul with her
+finger the deeply engraved word: "Fortuna."
+
+"I was not mistaken," she said, "and poor old Juliet Assire was
+speaking the truth, in speaking first of the river. During one of their
+last meetings the Baron must have thrown in here the gold medal in its
+metal case."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Didn't you write to him from Roborey, after I left, to be on his
+guard?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In that case what better hiding-place could he find for the medal till
+the day came for him to use it than the bottom of the pool? The first
+boy who came along could fish it out for him."
+
+Joyously she tossed the disc in the air and juggled with it and three
+pebbles. Then she caught hold of the shivering Saint-Quentin, very
+scraggy in his wet tights, and with the other three boys danced round
+the platform, singing the lay of "The Recovered Medal."
+
+At the end of his breath the captain made the observation that there
+was a fête at Clisson and that they might very well go there to
+celebrate their success.
+
+"Let's harness One-eye' Magpie."
+
+Dorothy approved of it.
+
+"Excellent! But One-eyed Magpie's too slow. What about your car, Raoul?"
+
+They hurried back to the Manor. Saint-Quentin went to change his
+costume. Raoul set his engine going and brought the car out of the
+garage. While the three boys were getting into it, he went to Dorothy,
+who had sat down at a little table on the terrace which ran the length
+of the building.
+
+"Are you ready?" he asked.
+
+She said:
+
+"But I never had any intention of going with you. To-day you're going
+to be nursemaid."
+
+He was not greatly surprised. Since early morning he had had an odd
+feeling that everything that happened was not quite natural. The
+incidents followed one another in such perfect sequence and with a
+logic and exactness foreign to actuality. One might have said that
+they were scenes in a too-well-made play, of which it would have been
+easy, with a little experience of the playwright's art, to analyze the
+construction and the tricks. Certainly, without knowing Dorothy's game,
+he guessed the dénouement she proposed to bring about--the capture of
+d'Estreicher. But by means of what stratagem?
+
+"Don't question me," she said. "We are watched. So no heroics, no
+remonstrances. Listen."
+
+She was amusing herself by spinning the disk on the table and quite
+calmly she outlined her plan and her maneuvers.
+
+"It's like this. A day or two ago I wrote, in your name, to the Public
+Prosecutor, advising him that our friend d'Estreicher, for whom the
+police are hunting, guilty of attempts to murder Baron Davernoie and
+Madame Juliet Assire, would be at Hillocks Manor to-day. I asked him to
+send two detectives who would find you at Masson Inn at four o'clock.
+It's now a quarter to four. Your three servants will be there too. So
+off you go."
+
+"What am I to do?"
+
+"Come back quickly with the two detectives and your three servants, not
+by the main road, but by the paths Saint-Quentin and the three boys
+will point out to you. At the end of them you will find ladders ready.
+You will set them up against the wall. D'Estreicher and his confederate
+will be there. You will cover them with your guns while the detectives
+arrest them."
+
+"Are you sure that d'Estreicher will come out of the hillocks--if it's
+the fact that the hillocks are his hiding-place?"
+
+"Quite sure. Here is the medal. He knows that it is in my hands. How
+can he help seizing the opportunity of taking it now that we are on the
+eve of the great event."
+
+She expressed herself with a disconcerting calmness. For all that
+she was exposing herself alone to all the menace of a combat which
+promised to be formidable, she had not the faintest air of being in
+danger. Indeed, such was her indifference to the risk she was running
+that, when the old Baron went past them and into the Manor, followed
+by his faithful Goliath, she imparted to Raoul some results of her
+observations.
+
+"Have you noticed that for the last day or two that your grandfather
+has been ill at ease? He too is instinctively aware that the great
+event is at hand, and he wants to act. He is pulling himself together
+and struggling against the disease which paralyzes him in the very hour
+of action."
+
+In spite of everything, Raoul hesitated. The idea of leaving her to
+face d'Estreicher alone was infinitely painful to him.
+
+"One question," he said.
+
+"Only one then, for you've no time to lose."
+
+"You made all your preparations for to-day. The police are informed,
+the servants warned, the rendezvous fixed. Good. But nevertheless you
+couldn't know that the discovery of this disc would take place just an
+hour before that rendezvous."
+
+"Excellent, Raoul; I congratulate you. You've put your finger on the
+weak point in my explanation. But I can't tell you anything more at the
+moment."
+
+"Nevertheless----"
+
+"Do as I ask you, Raoul. You know that I don't act at random."
+
+Dorothy's confidence, her boldness, the simplicity of her plan, her
+quiet smile, all inspired him with such trust in her judgment that he
+raised no more objections.
+
+"Very well," he said. "I'll go."
+
+"That's right," she said, laughing. "You have faith. In that case make
+haste and come back quickly, for d'Estreicher will come here not only
+to get hold of the medal but also for something on which perhaps he is
+equally keen."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Me."
+
+This was a suggestion which hastened the young man's decision. The car
+started and crossed the orchard. Saint-Quentin opened the big gate and
+shut it again as soon as the car had gone through it.
+
+Dorothy was alone; and she was to remain alone and defenceless for
+as long she reckoned, if her calculations were correct, as twelve to
+fifteen minutes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Keeping her back turned to the hillocks, she did not stir from her
+chair. She appeared to be very busy with the disc, testing the
+soldering, like one who seeks to discover the secret or the weak point
+of a piece of mechanism. But with her ears, all her nerves on edge, she
+tried to catch every sound or rustle that the breeze might bring her.
+
+By turns she was sustained by an unshakable certainty, or attacked by
+discouraging doubts. Yes: d'Estreicher was bound to come. She could not
+admit to herself that he might not come. The medal would draw him to
+her with an irresistible enticement.
+
+"And yet, no," she said to herself. "He will be on his guard. My little
+maneuver is really too puerile. This case, this medal which we find at
+the fateful moment, this departure of Raoul and the children, and then
+my staying alone in the empty farm, when my one care on the contrary
+would be to protect my find against the enemy--all this is really too
+far-fetched. An old fox like d'Estreicher will shun the trap."
+
+And then the other side of the problem presented itself:
+
+"He _will_ come. Perhaps he has already left his lair. Manifestly the
+danger will be clear to him, but afterwards, when it is too late. At
+the actual moment he is not free to act or not to act. He obeys."
+
+So once more Dorothy was guided by her keen insight into the trend
+of events, in spite of what her reason might tell her. The facts
+grouped themselves before her intelligence in a logical sequence and
+with strict method, she saw their accomplishment while they were yet
+in process of becoming. The motives which actuated other people were
+always perfectly clear to her. Her intuition revealed them; her quick
+intelligence instantly fitted them to the circumstances.
+
+Besides, as she had said, d'Estreicher was drawn by a double
+temptation. If he succeeded in resisting the temptation to try to seize
+the medal, how could he help succumbing to the temptation to seize
+that marvelous prize, right within his reach, Dorothy herself?
+
+She sat upright with a smile. The sound of footsteps had fallen on her
+ears. It must come from the wooden bridge which spanned the end of the
+pool.
+
+The enemy was coming!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But almost at the same moment she heard another sound on her right and
+then another on her left. D'Estreicher had _two_ confederates. She was
+hemmed in!
+
+The hands of her watch pointed to five minutes to four.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FACE TO FACE
+
+
+"If they seize me," she thought. "If it's d'Estreicher's intention to
+kidnap me without more ado, there's nothing to be done. Before I could
+be rescued, they would carry me off to their underground lair, and from
+there I don't know where!"
+
+And why should it be otherwise? Master of the medal and of Dorothy, the
+ruffian had only to fly.
+
+On the instant she saw all the faults of her plan. In order to compel
+d'Estreicher to risk a sortie that she might capture him during that
+sortie, she had invented a too subtle ruse, which actual developments
+of Fortune's spite might turn to her undoing. A conflict which turns on
+the number of seconds gained or lost is extremely doubtful.
+
+She went quickly into the house and pushed the disc under a heap of
+discarded things in a small lumber-room. The necessary hunt for it
+would delay for a while the enemy's flight. But when she came back to
+go out of the house, d'Estreicher, grimacing ironically behind his
+spectacles and under his thick beard, stood on the threshold of the
+front door.
+
+Dorothy never carried a revolver. All her life she never cared to trust
+to anything but her courage and intelligence. She regretted it at this
+horrible moment when she found herself face to face with the man who
+had murdered her father. Her first act would have been to blow out his
+brains.
+
+Divining her vengeful thought, he seized her arm quickly and twisted
+it, as he had twisted the arm of old Juliet Assire. Then bending over
+her, he snapped:
+
+"Where have you put it?... Be quick!"
+
+She did not even dream of resisting, so acute was the pain, and took
+him to the little room, and pointed to the heap. He found the disc
+at once, weighed it in his hand, examining it with an air of immense
+satisfaction and said:
+
+"That's all right. Victory at last! Twenty years of struggle come to an
+end. And over and above what I bargained for, you, Dorothy--the most
+magnificent and desirable of rewards."
+
+He ran his hand over her frock to make sure that she was not armed,
+then seized her round the body, and with a strength which no one would
+have believed him to possess, swung her over his shoulder on to his
+back.
+
+"You make me feel uneasy, Dorothy," he chuckled. "What? No resistance?
+What pretty behavior, my dear! There must be something in the way of a
+trap under it all. So I'll be off."
+
+Outside she caught sight of the two men, who were on guard at the big
+gate. One of them was the confederate she knew, from having seen him at
+Juliet Assire's cottage. The other, his face flattened against the bars
+of a small wicket, was watching the road.
+
+D'Estreicher called to them:
+
+"Keep your eyes skinned, boys. You mustn't be caught in the sheepfold.
+And when I whistle, bucket off back to the hillocks."
+
+He himself made for them with long strides without weakening under
+his burden. She could smell the odor of a damp cellar with which his
+subterranean lair had impregnated his garments. He held her by the neck
+with a hard hand that bruised it.
+
+They came to the wooden bridge and were just about to cross it. No more
+than a hundred yards from it, perhaps, among the bushes and rocks,
+was one of the entrances to his underground lair. Already the man was
+raising his whistle to his lips.
+
+With a deft movement, Dorothy snatched the disc, which was sticking up
+above the top of the pocket into which he had stuffed it, and threw it
+towards the pool. It ran along the ground, rolled down the bank, and
+disappeared under the water.
+
+"You little devil!" growled the ruffian throwing her roughly to the
+ground. "Stir, and I'll break your head!"
+
+He went down the bank and floundered about in the viscid mud of the
+river, keeping an eye on Dorothy and cursing her.
+
+She did not dream of flying. She kept looking from one to another of
+the points at the top of the wall above which she expected the heads of
+the farm-servants or the detectives to rise. It was certainly five or
+six minutes past the hour, yet none of them appeared. Nevertheless she
+did not lose hope. She expected d'Estreicher, who had evidently lost
+his head, to make some mistake of which she could take advantage.
+
+"Yes, yes," he snarled: "You wish to gain time, my dear. And suppose
+you do? Do you think I'll let go of you? I've got you both, you and the
+medal; and your bumpkin of a Raoul isn't the man to loosen my grip.
+Besides, if he does come, it'll be all the worse for him. My men have
+their orders: a good crack on the head----"
+
+He was still searching; he stopped short, uttered a cry of triumph and
+stood upright, the disc in his hand.
+
+"Here it is, ducky. Certainly the luck is with me; and you've lost. On
+we go, cousin Dorothy!"
+
+Dorothy cast a last look along the walls. No one. Instinctively, at the
+approach of the man she hated, she made as if to thrust him off. It
+made him laugh--so absurd did any resistance seem. Violently he beat
+down her outstretched arms, and again swung her on to his shoulder with
+a movement in which there was as much hate as desire.
+
+"Say good-bye to your sweetheart, Dorothy, for the good Raoul is in
+love with you. Say good-bye to him. If ever you see him again, it will
+be too late."
+
+He crossed the bridge and strode in among the hillocks.
+
+It was all over. In another thirty seconds, even if he were attacked,
+no longer being in sight of the points on the wall at which the men
+armed with guns were to rise up, he would have time to reach the mouth
+of the entrance to his lair. Dorothy had lost the battle. Raoul and the
+detectives would arrive too late.
+
+"You don't know how nice it is to have you there, all quivering, and
+to carry you away with me, against me, without your being able to
+escape the inevitable," whispered d'Estreicher. "But what's the matter
+with you? Are you crying? You mustn't, my dear. After all why should
+you? You would certainly let yourself be lulled one of these days on
+the bosom of the handsome Raoul. Then there's no reason why I should
+be more distasteful to you than he, is there? But--hang it!" he cried
+angrily, "haven't you done sobbing yet?"
+
+He turned her on his shoulder and caught hold of her head.
+
+He was dumfounded.
+
+Dorothy was laughing.
+
+"What--what's this? What are you laughing at? Is it p-p-possible that
+you dare to laugh? What on earth do you mean by it?"
+
+This laughter frightened him as a threat of danger? The slut! What
+was she laughing at? A sudden fury rose in him, and setting her down
+clumsily against a tree, he struck her with his clenched fist, out of
+which a ring stuck, on the forehead, among her hair, with such force
+that the blood spurted out.
+
+She was still laughing, as she stammered:
+
+"You b-b-brute! What a brute you are!"
+
+"If you laugh, I'll bite your mouth, you hussy," he snarled, bending
+over her red lips.
+
+He did not dare to carry out the threat, respecting her in spite of
+himself, and even a little intimidated. She was frightened, however,
+and laughed no more.
+
+"What is this? What is it?" he repeated. "You should be crying, and
+you're laughing. Why?"
+
+"I was laughing because of the plates," she said.
+
+"What plates?"
+
+"Those which form the case of the medal."
+
+"These?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What about them?"
+
+"They're the plates of Dorothy's Circus. I used to juggle with them."
+
+He looked utterly flabbergasted.
+
+"What's this rot you're talking?"
+
+"It is rot, isn't it? Saint-Quentin and I soldered them together; I
+engraved the motto on them with a knife; and last night we threw them
+into the pool."
+
+"But you're mad. I don't understand. With what object did you do it?"
+
+"Since poor old Juliet Assire babbled some admissions about the river
+when you tortured her, I was pretty sure you'd fall into the trap."
+
+"What do you mean? What trap?"
+
+"I wanted to get you to come out of here."
+
+"You knew that I was here then?"
+
+"Rather! I knew that you were watching us fish up the case; and I knew
+for certain what would happen after that. Believing that this case,
+found at the bottom of the pool under your very eyes, contained the
+medal, and seeing moreover that Raoul had gone and I was alone at the
+Manor, you wouldn't be able to come. But you have come."
+
+He stuttered:
+
+"The g-g-gold medal.... It isn't in this case then?"
+
+"No. It's empty."
+
+"And Raoul?... Raoul?... You're expecting him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"With some detectives. He went to meet them."
+
+He clenched his fists and growled:
+
+"You little beast, you denounced me."
+
+"I denounced you."
+
+Not for a second did d'Estreicher think she might be lying. He held the
+metal disc in his hand; and it would have been easy enough to force it
+open with his knife. To what end? The disc was empty. He was sure of
+it. Of a sudden he grasped the full force of the comedy she had played
+on the pool; it explained to him the odd uneasiness and disquiet he had
+felt while he was watching that series of actions the connection of
+which seemed to him strange.
+
+However he had come. He had plunged blindly, with his head down, into
+the trap she had audaciously laid for him before his very eyes. Of what
+miraculous power was she mistress? And how was he going to slip through
+the meshes of the net which was being drawn tighter and tighter round
+him?
+
+"Let's be getting away," he said, eager to get out of danger.
+
+But he was suffering from a lassitude of will, and instead of picking
+up his victim, he questioned her.
+
+"The disc is empty. But you know where the medal is?" he questioned.
+
+"Of course I know," said Dorothy, who only thought of gaining time and
+whose furtive eyes were scanning the top of the wall.
+
+The man's eyes sparkled:
+
+"Ah, you do, do you?... You must be a fool to admit it!... Since you
+know, you're going to tell, my dear. If not----"
+
+He drew his revolver.
+
+She said mockingly:
+
+"Just as with Juliet Assire? Twenty's what you count, isn't it? You may
+as well save your breath; it doesn't work with me."
+
+"I swear, dammit!----"
+
+"Words!"
+
+No: the battle was certainly not lost. Dorothy, though exhausted, her
+face smeared with blood, clung to every possible incident with grim
+tenacity. She felt strongly that, in his fury, d'Estreicher was capable
+of killing her. But she was quite as clearly aware of his confusion of
+ideas and of her power over him. He hadn't the strength to depart and
+abandon the medal for which he had struggled so desperately. If only
+his hesitation lasted a few minutes longer, Raoul was bound to appear
+on the scene.
+
+At this moment an incident occurred which appeared to excite her
+keenest interest, for she leant forward to follow it more closely. The
+old Baron came out of the Manor, carrying a bag, not dressed, as usual,
+in a blouse, but in a cloth suit, and wearing a felt hat. That showed
+that he had made a choice, that is to say, an effort of thought. Then
+there was another such effort. Goliath was not with him. He waited for
+him, stamped his foot, and when the dog did come, caught him by the
+collar, looked about him, and took his way to the gate.
+
+The two confederates barred his path; he muttered some grumbling
+complaints and tried to get past them. They shoved him back and at last
+he went off among the trees, without loosing Goliath, but leaving his
+bag behind him.
+
+His action was easy to understand; and Dorothy and d'Estreicher alike
+grasped the fact that the old fellow had wanted to go off on the quest
+of the treasure. In spite of his madness, he had not forgotten the
+enterprise. The appointed date was engraved on his memory; and on the
+day he had fixed, he strapped up his bag and started out like a piece
+of mechanism which one has wound up and which goes off at the moment
+fixed.
+
+D'Estreicher called out to his confederates:
+
+"Search his bag!"
+
+Since they found nothing, no medal, no clue, he walked up and down in
+front of Dorothy for a moment, undecided what course to take and then
+stopped beside her:
+
+"Answer me. Raoul loves you. You don't love him. Otherwise I should
+have put a stop to your little flirtation a fortnight ago. But all the
+same you feel some obligations towards him in the matter of the medal
+and the treasure; and you've joined forces. It's just foolishness, my
+dear, and I'm going to set your mind at rest about the matter, for
+there's a thing you don't know and I'm going to tell it you. After
+which I'm sure you'll speak. Answer me then. With regard to this medal,
+you must be wondering how I come to be hunting for it, since, as you
+very well know, I stole it from your father. What do you suppose?"
+
+"I suppose somebody took it from you."
+
+"You're right. But do you know who it was?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Raoul's father, George Davernoie."
+
+She started and exclaimed:
+
+"You lie!"
+
+"I do not!" he declared firmly. "You remember your father's last letter
+which cousin Octave read to us at Roborey? The Prince of Argonne
+related how he heard two men talking under his window and saw a hand
+slip through it towards the table and sneak the medal. Well, the man
+who had accompanied the other on the expedition and was waiting below,
+was George Davernoie. And that rogue, Dorothy, the very next night
+robbed his comrade."
+
+Dorothy was shaking with indignation and abhorrence:
+
+"It's a lie! Raoul's father take to such a trade? A thief?"
+
+"Worse than that. For the enterprise had not only robbery for its
+aim.... And if the man who poured the poison into the glass and whose
+tattooed arm was seen by the Prince of Argonne, does not deny his acts,
+he doesn't forget that the poison was provided by the other."
+
+"You lie! You lie! You alone are the culprit! You alone murdered my
+father!"
+
+"You don't really believe that. And look: here's a letter from him to
+the old Baron, to his father, that is. I found it among the Baron's
+papers. Read it:
+
+"'I have at last laid my hand on the indispensable gold piece. On my
+next leave I'll bring it to you.'
+
+"And look at the date. A week after the death of the Prince of Argonne!
+Do you believe me now, eh? And don't you think that we might come to an
+understanding between ourselves, apart from this milksop Raoul?"
+
+This revelation had tried Dorothy sorely. However, she pulled herself
+together and putting a good face on it, she asked:
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that the gold medal, brought to the Baron, intrusted by him to
+his old flame for a while, then hidden I don't know where, belongs to
+you. Raoul has no right to it. I'll buy it from you."
+
+"At what price?"
+
+"Any price you like--half the treasure, if you demand it."
+
+Dorothy saw on the instant how she could make the most of the
+situation. Here again was a way of gaining some minutes, decisive
+minutes perhaps, a painful and costly way, since she risked handing
+over to him the key to the treasure. But dare she hesitate?
+D'Estreicher was nearly at the end of his patience. He was beside
+himself at the notion of the imminent attack with which he was
+threatened. Let him get carried away by an access of panic and all
+would be lost by his taking flight.
+
+"A partnership between us? Never! A sharing of the treasure which would
+make me your ally? A thousand times, no! I detest you. But an agreement
+for a few moments? Perhaps."
+
+"Your conditions?" he said. "Be quick! Make the most of my allowing you
+to impose conditions!"
+
+"That won't take long. You have a double object--the medal and me. You
+must choose between them. Which do you want most?"
+
+"The medal."
+
+"If you let me go free, I'll give it to you."
+
+"Swear to me on your honor that you know where it is."
+
+"I swear it."
+
+"How long have you known?"
+
+"For about five minutes. A little while ago I did not know. A little
+fact has just come under my observation which has informed me."
+
+He believed her. It was impossible for him to disbelieve her.
+Everything that she said in that fashion, looking you straight in the
+face, was the exact truth.
+
+"Speak."
+
+"It's for you to speak first. Swear that as soon as my promise is
+fulfilled, I shall be free."
+
+The ruffian blinked. The idea of keeping an oath appeared comic to him;
+and Dorothy was quite aware that his oath had no value of any kind.
+
+"I swear it," he said.
+
+Then he repeated: "Speak. I can't quite make out what you are faking;
+but it doesn't strike me as being gospel truth. So I don't put much
+faith in it; and don't you forget it."
+
+The conflict between them was now at its height; and what gave that
+conflict its peculiar character was that both of them saw clearly the
+adversary's game. Dorothy had no doubt that Raoul, after an unforeseen
+delay, was on his way to the Manor, and d'Estreicher, who had no more
+doubt of it than she, knew that all her actions were based on her
+expectation of immediate intervention. But there was one trifling fact
+which rendered their chances of victory equal. D'Estreicher believed
+himself to be in perfect security because his two confederates, glued
+to the wicket, were watching the road for the coming of the car; while
+the young girl had taken the admirable precaution of instructing Raoul
+to abandon the car and take the paths which were out of sight of the
+gate. All her hope sprang from this precaution.
+
+She made her explanation quietly, all the while bearing in mind her
+keen desire to drag out the interview.
+
+"I've never ceased to believe," she said "--and I'm sure that you are
+of the same opinion that the Baron has never, so to speak, quitted the
+medal."
+
+"I hunted everywhere," d'Estreicher objected.
+
+"So did I. But I don't mean that he kept it on him. I meant that he
+kept it and still keeps it within reach."
+
+"You do?"
+
+"Yes. He has always managed in such a way that he has only to stretch
+out his hand to grasp it."
+
+"Impossible. We should have seen it."
+
+"Not at all. Only just now you failed to see anything."
+
+"Just now?"
+
+"Yes. When he was going off, compelled by the bidding of his
+instinct--when he was going off on the very day he had fixed before he
+fell ill----"
+
+"He was going off without the medal."
+
+"With the medal."
+
+"They searched his bag."
+
+"The bag wasn't the only thing he was taking with him."
+
+"What else was there? Hang it all! You were more than a hundred yards
+away from him! You saw nothing."
+
+"I saw that he was holding something besides his bag."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Goliath."
+
+D'Estreicher was silent, struck by that simple word and all it
+signified.
+
+"Goliath," Dorothy went on, "Goliath who _never quitted him_, Goliath
+always _within reach of his hand_, and whom he was holding, whom he
+is holding at this moment. Look at him. His five fingers are clenched
+round the dog's collar. Do you understand? _Round its collar!_"
+
+Once more d'Estreicher had no doubt. Dorothy's declaration immediately
+appeared to him to meet all the circumstances of the case. Once more
+she threw light on the affair. Beyond that light: nothing but darkness
+and contradictions.
+
+He recovered all his coolness. His will to act instantly revived; and
+at the same time he saw clearly all the precautions to be taken to
+minimize the risks of the attempt.
+
+He drew from his pocket a thin piece of rope, with which he bound
+Dorothy, and a handkerchief which he tied across her mouth.
+
+"If you've made a mistake, darling, all the worse for you. You'll pay
+for it."
+
+And he added in a sarcastic tone:
+
+"Moreover, if you haven't made a mistake, all the worse for you just
+the same. I'm not the man to lose my prey."
+
+He hailed his confederates:
+
+"Hi, boys! Is there any one on the road?"
+
+"Not a soul!"
+
+"Keep your eyes open! We'll be off in three minutes. When I whistle,
+bucket off to the entrance to the caves. I'll bring the young woman
+along."
+
+The threat, terrible as it was, did not effect Dorothy. For her the
+whole drama was unfolding itself down below, between d'Estreicher and
+the Baron. D'Estreicher ran down from the hillocks, crossed the bridge,
+and ran towards the old man who was sitting on a bench on the terrace,
+with Goliath's head on his knee.
+
+Dorothy felt her heart beating wildly. Not that she doubted that he
+would find the medal. It would be found in the dog's collar--of that
+she was sure. But it must be that this supreme effort to snatch a last
+delay could not fail.
+
+"If the barrel of a gun doesn't appear above the top of the wall before
+a minute is up, d'Estreicher is my master."
+
+And since she would rather kill herself than submit to that
+degradation, during that minute her life was at stake.
+
+The respite accorded by circumstances was longer than that.
+D'Estreicher, having flung himself on the dog, met with an unexpected
+resistance from the Baron. The old man thrust him off furiously, while
+the dog barked and dragged himself free from the ruffian's grip. The
+struggle was prolonged. Dorothy followed its phases with alternating
+fear and hope, backing up Raoul's grandfather with all the force of
+her will, cursing the energy and stubbornness of the ruffian. In the
+end the old Baron grew tired and appeared all at once to lose interest
+in what might happen. One might have thought that Goliath must have
+suddenly fallen a victim to the same sense of lassitude. He sat
+down at his master's feet and let himself be handled with a kind of
+indifference. With trembling fingers d'Estreicher caught hold of the
+collar, and ran his fingers along the nail-studded leather under the
+dog's thick coat. His fingers found the buckle.
+
+But he got no further. The dramatic surprise came at last. A man's bust
+rose above the wall, and a voice cried:
+
+"Hands up!"
+
+At last Dorothy smiled with an indescribable sensation of joy and
+deliverance. Her plan, delayed by some obstacle, was a success. Near
+Saint-Quentin who had been the first to appear, another figure rose
+above the wall, leveled a gun, and cried:
+
+"Hands up!"
+
+Instantly d'Estreicher abandoned his search and looked about him with
+an air of panic. Two other shouts rang out:
+
+"Hands up! Hands up!"
+
+From the points chosen by the young girl two more guns were leveled
+at him, and the men who aimed, aimed straight at d'Estreicher only.
+Nevertheless he hesitated. A bullet sang over his head. His hands went
+up. His confederates were already half-way to the hillocks in their
+flight. No one paid any attention to them. They ran across the bridge
+and disappeared in the direction of an isolated hillock which was
+called the Labyrinth.
+
+The big gate flew open. Raoul rushed through it, followed by two men
+whom Dorothy did not know, but who must be the detectives dispatched on
+his information.
+
+D'Estreicher did not budge; he kept his hands up; and doubtless he
+would not have made any resistance, if a false move of the police had
+not given him the chance. As they reached him they closed round him,
+covering him for two or three seconds from the fire of the servants on
+the wall. He took advantage of their error to whip out his revolver
+and shoot. Four times it cracked. Three bullets went wide. The fourth
+buried itself in Raoul's leg; and he fell to the ground with a groan.
+
+It was a futile outburst of rage and savagery. On the instant the
+detectives grappled with d'Estreicher, disarmed him, and reduced him to
+impotence.
+
+They handcuffed him; and as they did so his eyes sought Dorothy, who
+was almost out of sight, for she had slipped behind a clump of bushes;
+and as they sought her they filled with an expression of appalling hate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was Saint-Quentin, followed by the captain, who found Dorothy;
+and at the sight of her blood-smeared face, they were nearly beside
+themselves.
+
+"Silence," she commanded, to cut short their questions. "Yes, I'm
+wounded. But it's a mere nothing. Run to the Baron, captain; catch hold
+of Goliath, pat him, and take off his collar. In the collar, you will
+find behind the metal plate, on which his name is engraved, a pocket,
+forming a lining to it and containing the metal we're looking for.
+Bring it to me."
+
+The boy hurried off.
+
+"Saint-Quentin," Dorothy continued. "Have the detectives seen me?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You must give every one to understand that I left the Manor some time
+ago and that you're to meet me at the market-town, Roche-sur-Yon. I
+don't want to be mixed up with the inquiry. They'll examine me; and it
+will be a sheer waste of time."
+
+"But Monsieur Davernoie?"
+
+"As soon as you get the chance, tell him. Tell him that I've gone for
+reasons which I will explain later, and that I beg him to keep silent
+about everything that concerns us. Besides, he is wounded, and his
+mind is confused, and nobody will think about me. They're going to
+hunt through the hillocks, I expect, to get hold of d'Estreicher's
+confederates. They mustn't see me. Cover me with branches."
+
+"That's all right," she said when he had done so, "As soon as it is
+getting dark, come, all four of you, and carry me down to the caravan;
+and we'll start as soon as it's daylight. Perhaps I shall be out of
+sorts for a few days. Rather too much overwork and excitement--nothing
+for you to worry about. Do you understand, my boy?"
+
+"Yes, Dorothy."
+
+As she had foreseen, the two detectives, having shut up d'Estreicher at
+the Manor, passed at no great distance from her, guided by one of the
+farm-servants. She presently heard them calling out and guessed that
+they had discovered the entrance to the caves of the Labyrinth, down
+which d'Estreicher's confederates had fled.
+
+"Pursuit is useless," murmured Dorothy. "The quarry has too long a
+start."
+
+She felt exhausted. But for nothing in the world would she have
+yielded to her lassitude before the return of the captain. She asked
+Saint-Quentin how the attack had come to be so long delayed.
+
+"An accident, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said he. "The detectives made a mistake about the inn; and the
+farm-servants were late getting back from the fête. It was necessary to
+collect the whole lot; and the car broke down."
+
+Montfaucon came running up. Dorothy went on:
+
+"Perhaps, Saint-Quentin, there'll be the name of a town, or rather of
+a château, on the medal. In that case, find out all you can about the
+route and take the caravan there. Did you find it, captain?"
+
+"Yes, mummy."
+
+"Give it to me, pet."
+
+What emotion Dorothy felt when she touched the gold medal so keenly
+coveted by them all, which one might reckon the most precious of
+talismans, as the guarantee even of success!
+
+It was a medal twice the size of a five-franc piece, and above all
+much thicker, less smoothly cut than a modern medal, less delicately
+modeled, and of duller gold that did not shine.
+
+On the face was the motto:
+
+    _In robore fortuna_,
+
+On the reverse these lines:
+
+    _July 12, 1921._
+
+    _At noon. Before the clock of the Château of Roche-Périac._
+
+"The twelfth of July," muttered Dorothy. "I have time to faint."
+
+She fainted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+TOWARDS THE GOLDEN FLEECE
+
+
+It was not till nearly three days afterwards that Dorothy got the
+better of the physical torpor, aggravated by fever, which had
+overwhelmed her. The four boys gave a performance on the outskirts of
+Nantes. Montfaucon took the place of the directress in the leading
+rôle. It was a less taking spectacle; but in it the captain displayed
+such an animated comicality that the takings were good.
+
+Saint-Quentin insisted that Dorothy should take another two days' rest.
+What need was there to hurry? The village of Roche-Périac was at the
+most sixty-five miles from Nantes so that there was no need for them to
+set out till six days before the time appointed.
+
+She allowed herself to be ordered about by him, for she was still
+suffering from a profound lassitude as a result of so many ups and
+downs and such violent emotions. She thought a great deal about Raoul
+Davernoie, but in a spirit of angry revolt against the feeling of
+tenderness towards the young man with which those weeks of intimacy had
+inspired her. However little he might be connected with the drama in
+which the Prince of Argonne had met his death, he was none the less the
+son of the man who had assisted d'Estreicher in the perpetration of
+the crime. How could she forget that? How could she forgive it?
+
+The quiet pleasantness of the journey soothed the young girl. Her
+ardent and happy nature got the better of painful memories and past
+fatigues. The nearer she drew to her goal, the more fully her strength
+of mind and body came back to her, her joy in life, her childlike
+gayety, and her resolve to bring the enterprise to a successful end.
+
+"Saint-Quentin," she said, "we are advancing to the capture of the
+Golden Fleece. Are you bearing in mind the solemn importance of the
+days that are passing? Four days yet ... three days ... two days; and
+the Golden Fleece is ours. Baron de Saint-Quentin, in a fortnight you
+will be dressed like a dandy."
+
+"And you like a princess," replied Saint-Quentin, to whom this prospect
+of fortune, promising a less close intimacy with his great friend, did
+not seem to give any great pleasure.
+
+She was strongly of the opinion that other trials awaited her, that
+there would still be obstacles to surmount and perhaps enemies to
+fight. But for the time being there was a respite and a truce. The
+first part of the drama was finished. Other adventures were about to
+begin. Curious and of a daring spirit, she smiled at the mysterious
+future which opened before her.
+
+On the fourth day they crossed the Vilaine, the right bank of which
+they were henceforth to follow, along the top of the slopes which
+run down to the river. It was a somewhat barren country, sparsely
+inhabited, over which they moved slowly under a scorching sun which
+overwhelmed One-eyed Magpie.
+
+At last, next day, the 11th of July, they saw on a sign-post:
+
+    _Roche-Périac 12-1/2 Miles_
+
+"We shall sleep there to-night," declared Dorothy.
+
+It was a painful stage of the journey.... The heat was suffocating. On
+the way they picked up a tramp who lay groaning on the dusty grass. A
+woman and a club-footed child were walking a hundred yards ahead of
+them without One-eyed Magpie being able to catch them up.
+
+Dorothy and the four boys took it in turn to sit with the tramp in the
+caravan. He was a wretched old man, worn out by poverty, whose rags
+were only held together by pieces of string. In the middle of his bushy
+hair and unkempt beard his eyes, however, still had a certain glow, and
+when Dorothy questioned him about the life he led, he confounded her by
+saying:
+
+"One mustn't complain. My father, who was a traveling knife-grinder
+always said to me: 'Hyacinth--that's my name--Hyacinth, one isn't
+miserable while one's brave: Fortune is in the firm heart.'"
+
+Dorothy concealed her amazement and said:
+
+"That's not a weighty legacy. Did he only leave you this secret?"
+
+"Yes," said the tramp quite simply. "That and a piece of advice: to
+go on the 12th of July every year, and wait in front of the church of
+Roche-Périac for somebody who will give me hundreds and thousands. I
+go there every year. I've never received anything but pennies. All the
+same, it keeps one going, that idea does. I shall be there to-morrow,
+as I was last year ... and as I shall be next."
+
+The old man fell back upon his own thoughts. Dorothy said no more. But
+an hour later she offered the shelter of the box to the woman and the
+club-footed child, whom they had at last overtaken. And questioning
+this woman, she learnt that she was a factory hand from Paris who was
+going to the church of Roche-Périac that her child's foot might be
+healed.
+
+"In my family," said the woman, "in my father's time and my
+grandfather's too, one always did the same thing when a child was ill,
+one took it on the 12th of July into the chapel of Saint Fortunat at
+Roche-Périac. It's a certain cure."
+
+So, by these two other channels, the legend had passed to this woman
+of the people and this tramp, but a deformed legend, of which there
+only remained a few shreds of the truth: the church took the place of
+the château, Saint Fortunat of the fortune. Only the day of the month
+mattered; there was no question of the year. There was no mention at
+all of the medal. And each was making a pilgrimage towards the place
+from which so many families had looked for miraculous aid.
+
+That evening the caravan reached the village, and at once Dorothy
+obtained information about the Château de la Roche-Périac. The only
+château of that name that was known was some ruins six miles further on
+situated on the shore of the ocean on a small peninsula.
+
+"We'll sleep here," said Dorothy, "and we'll start early in the
+morning."
+
+They did not start early in the morning. The caravan was drawn into a
+barn for the night; and soon after midnight Saint-Quentin was awakened
+by the pungent fumes of smoke and a crackling. He jumped up. The barn
+was on fire. He shouted and called for help. Some peasants, passing
+along the high road by a happy chance, ran to his assistance.
+
+It was quite time. They had barely dragged the caravan out of the
+barn when the roof fell in. Dorothy and her comrades were uninjured.
+But One-eyed Magpie half roasted, refused firmly to let himself be
+harnessed; the shafts chafed her burns. It was not till seven o'clock
+that the caravan tottered off, drawn by a wretched horse they had
+hired, and followed by One-eyed Magpie. As they crossed the square in
+front of the church, they saw the woman and her child kneeling at the
+end of the porch, and the tramp on his quest. For them the adventure
+would go no further.
+
+There were no further incidents. Except Saint-Quentin on the box, they
+went to sleep in the caravan, leaning against one another. At half-past
+nine they stopped. They had come to a cottage dignified with the name
+of an inn, on the door of which they read "Widow Amoureux. Lodging for
+man and beast." A few hundred yards away, at the bottom of a slope
+which ended in a low cliff, the little peninsula of Périac stretched
+out into the ocean five promontories which looked like the five fingers
+of a hand. On their left was the mouth of the Vilaine.
+
+For the children it was the end of the expedition. They made a meal in
+a dimly lighted room, furnished with a zinc counter, in which coffee
+was served. Then while Castor and Pollux fed One-eyed Magpie, Dorothy
+questioned the widow Amoureux, a big, cheerful, talkative country-woman
+about the ruins of Roche-Périac.
+
+"Ah, you're going there too, are you, my dear?" the widow exclaimed.
+
+"I'm not the first then?" said Dorothy.
+
+"Goodness, no. There's already an old gentleman and his wife. I've seen
+the old gentleman before at this time of year. Once he slept here. He's
+one of those who seek."
+
+"Who seek what?"
+
+"Who can tell? A treasure, according to what they say. The people about
+here don't believe in it. But people come from a long way off who hunt
+in the woods and turn over the stones."
+
+"It's allowed then, is it?"
+
+"Why not? The island of Périac--I call it an island because at high
+tide the road to it is covered--belongs to the monks of the monastery
+of Sarzeau, a couple of leagues further on. It seems, indeed, that
+they're ready to sell the ruins and all the land. But who'd buy them?
+There's none of it cultivated; it's all wild."
+
+"Is there any other road to it but this?"
+
+"Yes, a stony road which starts at the cliff and runs into the road to
+Vannes. But I tell you, my dear, it's a lost land--deserted. I don't
+see ten travelers a year--some shepherds, that's all."
+
+At last at ten o'clock, the caravan was properly installed, and in
+spite of the entreaties of Saint-Quentin who would have liked to go
+with her and to whom she intrusted the children, Dorothy, dressed in
+her prettiest frock and adorned with her most striking fichu, started
+on her campaign.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The great day had begun--the day of triumph or disappointment, of
+darkness or light. Whichever it might be, for a girl like Dorothy with
+her mind always alert and of an ever quivering sensitiveness, the
+moment was delightful. Her imagination created a fantastic palace,
+bright with a thousand shining windows, people with good and bad
+genies, with Prince Charmings and beneficent fairies.
+
+A light breeze blew from the sea and tempered the rays of the sun with
+its freshness. The further she advanced the more distinctly she saw
+the jagged contours of the five promontories and of the peninsula in
+which they were rooted in a mass of bushes and green rocks. The meager
+outline of a half demolished tower rose above the tops of the trees;
+and here and there among them one caught sight of the gray stones of a
+ruin.
+
+But the slope became steeper. The Vannes' road joined hers where it
+ran down a break in the cliff, and Dorothy saw that the sea, very high
+up at the moment, almost bathed the foot of this cliff, covering with
+calm, shallow water the causeway to the peninsula.
+
+On the top were standing, upright, the old gentleman and the lady of
+whom the widow Amoureux had told her. Dorothy was amazed to recognize
+Raoul's grandfather and his old flame Juliet Assire. The old Baron!
+Juliet Assire! How had they been able to get away from the Manor, to
+escape from Raoul, to make the journey, and reach the threshold of the
+ruins?
+
+She came right up to them without their even seeming to notice her
+presence. Their eyes were vague; and they were gazing in dull surprise
+at this sheet of water which hindered their progress.
+
+Dorothy was touched. Two centuries of chimerical hopes had bequeathed
+to the old Baron instructions so precise that they survived the
+extinction of his power to think. He had come here from a distance, in
+spite of terrible fatigues and super-human efforts to attain the goal,
+groping his way, in the dark, and accompanied by another creature, like
+himself, demented. And behold both of them stopped dead before a little
+water as before an obstacle there was no surmounting.
+
+She said to him gently:
+
+"Will you follow me? It's a mere nothing to go through."
+
+He raised his head and looked at her and did not reply. The woman also
+was silent. Neither he nor she could understand. They were automata
+rather than living beings, urged on by an impulse which was outside
+them. They had come without knowing what they were doing; they had
+stopped and they would go back without knowing what they were doing.
+
+There was no time to lose. Dorothy did not insist. She pulled up her
+frock and pinned it between her legs. She took off her shoes and
+stockings and stepped into the water which was so shallow that her
+knees were not wet.
+
+When she reached the further shore the old people had not budged. With
+a dumfounded air they still gazed at the unforeseen obstacle. In spite
+of herself, with a compassionate smile, she stretched out her arms
+towards them. The old Baron again threw back his head. Juliet Assire
+was as still as a statue.
+
+"Good-bye," said Dorothy, almost happy at their inaction and at being
+alone to prosecute the enterprise.
+
+The approach to the peninsula of Périac is made very narrow by two
+marshes, according to the widow Amoureux reputed to be very dangerous,
+between which a narrow band of solid ground affords the only path. This
+path mounted a wooded ravine, which some faded writing on an old board
+described as "Bad Going" and came out to a plateau covered with gorse
+and heather. At the end of twenty minutes Dorothy crossed the débris of
+part of the old wall which ran round the château.
+
+She slackened her pace. At every step it seemed to her that she was
+penetrating into a more and more mysterious region in which time had
+accumulated more silence and more solitude. The trees hugged one
+another more closely. The shade of the brushwood was so thick that no
+flowers grew beneath it. Who then had lived here formerly and planted
+these trees, some of which were of rare species and foreign origin?
+
+The road split into three paths, goat-tracks, along which one had to
+walk in a stooping posture under the low branches. She chose at random
+the middle track of the three and passed through a series of small
+enclosures marked out by small walls of crumbling stone. Under heavy
+draperies of ivy she saw rows of buildings. She did not doubt that her
+goal was close at hand, and her emotion was so great that she had to
+sit down like a pilgrim who is about to arrive in sight of the sacred
+spot towards which he has been advancing ever since his earliest days.
+
+And of her inmost self she asked this question:
+
+"Suppose I have made a mistake? Suppose all this means nothing at all?
+Yes: in the little leather bag I have in my pocket, there is a medal,
+and on it the name of a château, and a given day in a given year. And
+here I am at the château at the appointed time; but all the same what
+is there to prove that my reasoning is sound, or that anything is going
+to happen? A hundred and fifty or two hundred years is a very long
+time, and any number of things may have happened to sweep away the
+combinations of which I believe I have caught a glimpse."
+
+She rose. Step by step she advanced slowly. A pavement of
+different-colored bricks, arranged in a design, covered the ground. The
+arch of an isolated gateway, quite bare, opened high above. She passed
+through it, and at once, at the end of a large court-yard, she saw--and
+it was all she did see--the face of a clock.
+
+A glance at her watch showed her that it was half-past eleven. There
+was no one else in the ruins.
+
+And truly it seemed as if there never could be any one else in this
+last corner of the world, whither chance could only bring ignorant
+wayfarers or shepherds in quest of pasturage for their flocks. Indeed,
+there were only fragments of ruins, rather than actual ruins,
+covered with ivy and briers--here a porch, there a vault, further on
+a chimney-piece, further still the skeleton of a summer-house--alone,
+venerable witnesses to a time at which there had been a house, with a
+court-yard in front, wings on both sides, surrounded by a park. Further
+off there stood, in groups or in fragments of avenues, fine old trees,
+chiefly oaks, wide-spreading, venerable, and majestic.
+
+At one side of the court-yard, the shape of which she could make out
+by the position of the buildings which had crumbled to ruins, part of
+the front, still intact, and backed by a small hill of ruins, held, at
+the top of a very low first story, this clock which had escaped by a
+miracle man's ravages. Across its face stretched its two big hands, the
+color of rust. Most of the hours, engraved contrary to the usual custom
+in Roman figures, were effaced. Moss and wall-pellitory were growing
+between the gaping stones of the face. Right at the bottom of it, under
+cover in a small niche, a bell awaited the stroke of the hammer.
+
+A dead clock, whose heart had ceased to beat. Dorothy had the
+impression that time had stopped there for centuries, suspended from
+these motionless hands, from that hammer which no longer struck, from
+that silent bell in its sheltering niche. Then she espied underneath
+it, on a marble tablet, some scarcely legible letters, and mounting a
+pile of stones, she could decipher the words: _In robore fortuna!_
+
+_In robore fortuna!_ The beautiful and noble motto that one
+found everywhere, at Roborey, at the Manor, at the Château de la
+Roche-Périac, and on the medal! Was Dorothy right then? Were the
+instructions given by the medal still valid? And was it truly a
+meeting-place to which one was summoned, across time and space, in
+front of this dead clock?
+
+She gained control of herself and said, laughing:
+
+"A meeting-place to which I alone shall come."
+
+So keen was this conviction of hers that she could hardly believe that
+those who, like herself, had been summoned would come. The formidable
+series of chances, thanks to which, little by little, she had come
+to the very heart of this enigmatic adventure, could not logically
+be repeated in the case of some other privileged being. The chain of
+tradition must have been broken in the other families, or have ended in
+fragments of the truth, as the instances of the tramp and the factory
+hand proved.
+
+"No one will come," she repeated. "It is five and twenty to twelve.
+Consequently----"
+
+She did not finish the sentence. A sound came from the land side, a
+sound near at hand, distinct from those produced by the movements of
+the sea or the wind. She listened. It came with an even beat which grew
+more and more distinct.
+
+"Some peasant ... some wood-cutter," she thought.
+
+No. It was something else. She made it out more clearly the nearer it
+came: it was the slow and measured step of a horse whose hoofs were
+striking the harder soil of the path. Dorothy followed its progress
+through one after the other of the inclosures of the old estate, then
+along the brick pavement. A clicking of the tongue of a rider, urging
+on his mount, at intervals came to her ears.
+
+Her eyes fixed on the yawning arch Dorothy waited almost shivering with
+curiosity.
+
+And suddenly a horseman appeared. An odd-looking horseman, who looked
+so large on his little horse, that one was rather inclined to believe
+that he was advancing by means of those long legs which hung down so
+far, and pulling the horse along like a child's toy. His check suit,
+his knickerbockers, his thick woolen stockings, his clean-shaven face,
+the pipe between his teeth, his phlegmatic air, all proclaimed his
+English nationality.
+
+On seeing Dorothy he said to himself and without the slightest air of
+astonishment:
+
+"Oh."
+
+And he would have continued his journey if he had not caught sight of
+the clock. He pulled in his horse.
+
+To dismount he had only to stand on tip-toe and his horse slipped from
+under him. He knotted the bridle round a root, looked at his watch, and
+took up his position not far from the clock.
+
+"Here is a gentleman who doesn't waste words," thought Dorothy. "An
+Englishman for certain."
+
+She presently discovered that he kept looking at her, but as one looks
+at a woman one finds pretty and not at all as one looks at a person
+with whom circumstances demand that one should converse. His pipe
+having gone out, he lit it again; and so they remained three or four
+minutes, close to one another, serious, without stirring. The breeze
+blew the smoke from his pipe towards her.
+
+"It's too silly," said Dorothy to herself. "For after all it's very
+likely that this taciturn gentleman and I have an appointment. Upon my
+word, I'm going to introduce myself. Under which name?"
+
+This question threw her into a state of considerable embarrassment.
+Ought she to introduce herself to him as Princess of Argonne or as
+Dorothy the rope-dancer? The solemnity of the occasion called for a
+ceremonious presentation and the revelation of her rank. But on the
+other hand her variegated costume with its short skirt called for less
+pomp. Decidedly "Rope-dancer" sufficed.
+
+These considerations, to the humor of which she was quite alive, had
+brought a smile to her face. The young man observed it. He smiled too.
+Both of them opened their mouths, and they were about to speak at the
+same time when an incident stopped them on the verge of utterance. A
+man came out of the path into the court-yard, a pedestrian with a clean
+shaven face, very pale, one arm in a sling under a jacket much too
+large for him, and a Russian soldier's cap.
+
+The sight of the clock brought him also to a dead stop. Perceiving
+Dorothy and her companion, he smiled an expansive smile that opened his
+mouth from ear to ear, and took off his cap, uncovering a completely
+shaven head.
+
+During this incident the sound of a motor had been throbbing away,
+at first at some distance. The explosions grew louder, and there
+burst, once more through the arch, into the court-yard a motor-cycle
+which went bumping over the uneven ground and stopped short. The
+motor-cyclist had caught sight of the clock.
+
+Quite young, of a well set-up, well-proportioned figure, tall, slim,
+and of a cheerful countenance, he was certainly, like the first-comer,
+of the Anglo-Saxon race. Having propped up his motor-cycle, he walked
+towards Dorothy, watch in hand as if he were on the point of saying:
+
+"You will note that I am not late."
+
+But he was interrupted by two more arrivals who came almost
+simultaneously. A second horseman came trotting briskly through the
+arch on a big, lean horse, and at the sight of the group gathered in
+front of the clock, drew rein sharply, saying in Italian:
+
+"Gently--gently."
+
+He had a fine profile and an amiable face, and when he had tied up his
+mount, he came forward hat in hand, as one about to pay his respects to
+a lady.
+
+But, mounted on a donkey, appeared a fifth individual, from a different
+direction from any of the others. On the threshold of the court he
+pulled up in amazement, staring stupidly with wide-open eyes behind his
+spectacles.
+
+"Is it p-p-possible?" he stammered. "Is it possible? They've come. The
+whole thing isn't a fairy-tale!"
+
+He was quite sixty. Dressed in a frock-coat, his head covered with a
+black straw hat, he wore whiskers and carried under his arm a leather
+satchel. He did not cease to reiterate in a flustered voice:
+
+"They have come!... They have come to the rendezvous!... It's
+unbelievable!"
+
+Up to now Dorothy had been silent in the face of the exclamations and
+arrivals of her companions. The need of explanations, of speech even,
+seemed to diminish in her the more they flocked round her. She became
+serious and grave. Her thoughtful eyes expressed an intense emotion.
+Each apparition seemed to her as tremendous an event as a miracle. Like
+the gentleman in the frock-coat with the satchel, she murmured:
+
+"Is it possible? They have come to the rendezvous!"
+
+She looked at her watch.
+
+Noon.
+
+"Listen," she said, stretching out her hand. "Listen. The Angelus is
+ringing somewhere ... at the village church...."
+
+They uncovered their heads, and while they listened to the ringing of
+the bell, which came to them in irregular bursts, one would have said
+that they were waiting for the clock to start going and connect with
+the minute that was passing the thread of the minutes of long ago.
+
+Dorothy fell on her knees. Her emotion was so deep that she was
+weeping.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE WILL OF THE MARQUIS DE BEAUGREVAL
+
+
+Tears of joy, tears which relieved her strained nerves and bathed
+her in an immense peacefulness. The five men were greatly disturbed,
+knowing neither what to do nor what to say.
+
+"Mademoiselle?... What's the matter, mademoiselle?"
+
+They seemed so staggered by her sobs and by their own presence
+round her, that Dorothy passed suddenly from tears to laughter, and
+yielding to her natural impulse, she began forthwith to dance, without
+troubling to know whether she would appear to them to be a princess
+or a rope-dancer. And the more this unexpected display increased the
+embarrassment of her companions the gayer she grew. Fandango, jig,
+reel, she gave a snatch of each, with a simulated accompaniment of
+castanets, and a genuine accompaniment of English songs and Auvergnat
+ritornelles, and above all of bursts of laughter which awakened the
+echoes of Roche-Périac.
+
+"But laugh too, all five of you!" she cried. "You look like five
+mummies. It's I who order you to laugh, I, Dorothy, rope-dancer and
+Princess of Argonne. Come, Mr. Lawyer," she added, addressing the
+gentleman in the frock-coat. "Look more cheerful. I assure you that
+there's plenty to be cheerful about."
+
+She darted to the good man, shook him by the hand, and said, as if to
+assure him of his status: "You are the lawyer, aren't you? The notary
+charged with the execution of the provisions of a will. That's much
+clearer than you think.... We'll explain it to you.... You are the
+notary?"
+
+"That is the fact," stammered the gentleman. "I am Maître Delarue,
+notary at Nantes."
+
+"At Nantes? Excellent; we know where we are. And it's a question of
+a gold medal, isn't it?... A gold medal which each has received as a
+summons to the rendezvous?"
+
+"Yes, yes," he said, more and more flustered. "A gold medal--a
+rendezvous."
+
+"The 12th of July, 1921."
+
+"Yes, yes--1921."
+
+"At noon?"
+
+"At noon."
+
+He made as if to look at his watch. She stopped him:
+
+"You needn't take the trouble, Maître Delarue; we've heard the Angelus.
+You are punctual at the rendezvous.... We are too.... Everything is in
+order.... Each has his gold medal.... They're going to show it to you."
+
+She drew Maître Delarue towards the clock, and said with even greater
+animation:
+
+"This is Maître Delarue, the notary. You understand? If you don't, I
+can speak English--and Italian--and Javanese."
+
+All four of them protested that they understood French.
+
+"Excellent. We shall understand one another better. Then this is Maître
+Delarue; he is the notary, the man who has been instructed to preside
+at our meeting. In France notaries represent the dead. So that since
+it is a dead man who brings us together, you see how important Maître
+Delarue's position is in the matter. You don't grasp it? How funny that
+is! To me it is all so clear--and so amusing. So strange! It's the
+prettiest adventure I ever heard of--and the most thrilling. Think now!
+We all belong to the same family.... We're by way of being cousins.
+Then we ought to be joyful like relations who have come together. And
+all the more because--yes: I'm right--all four of you are decorated....
+The French Croix de Guerre. Then all four of you have fought?... Fought
+in France?... You have defended my dear country?"
+
+She shook hands with all of them, with an air of affection, and since
+the American and the Italian displayed an equal warmth, of a sudden,
+with a spontaneous movement, she rose on tip-toe and kissed them on
+both cheeks.
+
+"Welcome cousin from America ... welcome cousin from Italy ... welcome
+to my country. And to you two also, greetings. It's settled that we're
+comrades--friends--isn't it?"
+
+The atmosphere was charged with joy and that good humor which comes
+from being young and full of life. They felt themselves to be really
+of the same family, scattered members brought together. They no
+longer felt the constraint of a first meeting. They had known one
+another for years and years--for ages! cried Dorothy, clapping her
+hands. So the four men surrounded her, at once attracted by her charm
+and lightheartedness, and surprised by the light she brought into
+the obscure story which so suddenly united them to one another. All
+barriers were swept away. There was none of that slow infiltration of
+feeling which little by little fills you with trust and sympathy, but
+the sudden inrush of the most unreserved comradeship. Each wished to
+please and each felt that he did please.
+
+Dorothy separated them and set them in a row as if about to review them.
+
+"I'll take you in turn, my friends. Excuse me, Monsieur Delarue, I'll
+do the questioning and verify their credentials. Number one, the
+gentleman from America, who are you? Your name?"
+
+The American answered:
+
+"Archibald Webster, of Philadelphia."
+
+"Archibald Webster, of Philadelphia. You received from your father a
+gold medal?"
+
+"From my mother, mademoiselle. My father died many years ago."
+
+"And from whom did your mother receive it?"
+
+"From her father."
+
+"And he from his and so on in succession, isn't that it?"
+
+Archibald Webster confirmed her statement in excellent French, as if it
+was his duty to answer her questions:
+
+"And so on in succession, as you say, mademoiselle. A family tradition,
+which goes back to we don't know when, ascribes a French origin to
+her family, and directs that a certain medal should be transmitted
+to the eldest son, without more than two persons ever knowing of its
+existence."
+
+"And what do you understand this tradition to mean?"
+
+"I don't know what it means. My mother told me that it gave us a right
+to a share of a treasure. But she laughed as she told me and sent me to
+France rather out of curiosity."
+
+"Show me your medal, Archibald Webster."
+
+The American took the gold medal from his waistcoat pocket. It was
+exactly like the one Dorothy possessed--the inscription, the size, the
+dull color were the same. Dorothy showed it to Maître Delarue, then
+gave it back to the American, and went on with her questioning:
+
+"Number two--English, aren't you?"
+
+"George Errington, of London."
+
+"Tell us what you know, George Errington, of London."
+
+The Englishman shook his pipe, emptied it, and answered in equally good
+French.
+
+"I know no more. An orphan from birth, I received the medal three days
+ago from the hands of my guardian, my father's brother. He told me
+that, according to my father, it was a matter of collecting a bequest,
+and according to himself, there was nothing in it, but I ought to obey
+the summons."
+
+"You were right to obey it, George Errington. Show me your medal.
+Right: you're in order.... Number three--a Russian, doubtless?"
+
+The man in the soldier's cap understood; but he did not speak French.
+He smiled his large smile and gave her a scrap of paper of doubtful
+cleanliness, on which was written: "Kourobelef, French war, Salonica.
+War with Wrangel."
+
+"The medal?" said Dorothy. "Right. You're one of us. And the medal of
+number four--the gentleman from Italy?"
+
+"Marco Dario, of Geneva," answered the Italian, showing his medal. "I
+found it on my father's body, in Champagne, one day after we had been
+fighting side by side. He had never spoken to me about it."
+
+"Nevertheless you have come here."
+
+"I did not intend to. And then, in spite of myself, as I had returned
+to Champagne--to my father's tomb, I took the train to Vannes."
+
+"Yes," she said: "like the others you have obeyed the command of our
+common ancestor. What ancestor? And why this command? That is what
+Monsieur Delarue is going to reveal to us. Come Monsieur Delarue: all
+is in order. All of us have the token. It is now in order for us to
+call on you for the explanation."
+
+"What explanation?" asked the lawyer, still dazed by so many surprises.
+"I don't quite know...."
+
+"How do you mean you don't know?... Why this leather satchel.... And
+why have you made the journey from Nantes to Roche-Périac? Come, open
+your satchel and read to us the documents it must contain."
+
+"You truly believe----"
+
+"Of course I believe! We have, all five of us, these gentlemen and
+myself, performed our duty in coming here and informing you of our
+identity. It is your turn to carry out your mission. We are all ears."
+
+The gayety of the young girl spread around her such an atmosphere
+of cordiality that even Maître Delarue himself felt its beneficent
+effects. Besides, the business was already in train; and he entered
+smoothly on ground over which the young girl had traced, in the midst
+of apparently impenetrable brushwood, a path which he could follow with
+perfect ease.
+
+"But certainly," said he. "But certainly.... There is nothing else to
+do.... And I must communicate what I know to you.... Excuse me.... But
+this affair is so disconcerting."
+
+Getting the better of the confusion into which he had been thrown, he
+recovered all the dignity which befits a lawyer. They set him in the
+seat of honor on a kind of shelf formed by an inequality of the ground,
+and formed a circle round him. Following Dorothy's instructions, he
+opened his satchel with the air of importance of a man used to having
+every eye fixed on him and every ear stretched to catch his every
+word, and without waiting to be again pressed to speak, embarked on
+a discourse evidently prepared for the event of his finding himself,
+contrary to all reasonable expectation, in the presence of some one at
+the appointed rendezvous.
+
+"My preamble will be brief," he said, "for I am eager to come to the
+object of this reunion. On the day--it is fourteen years ago--on which
+I installed myself at Nantes in the office of a notary whose practice
+I had bought, my predecessor, after having given me full information
+about the more complicated cases in hand, exclaimed: 'Ah, but I was
+forgetting ... not that it's of any importance.... But all the same....
+Look, my dear confrère, this is the oldest set of papers in the
+office.... And a measly set too, since it only consists of a sealed
+letter with a note of instructions, which I will read to you:
+
+    _Missive intrusted to the strict care of the Sire Barbier,
+    scrivener, and of his successors, to be opened on the 12th of
+    July, 1921, at noon, in front of the clock of the Château of
+    Roche-Périac, and to be read in the presence of all possessors
+    of a gold medal struck at my instance._
+
+"There! No other explanations. My predecessor did not receive any from
+the man from whom he had bought the practice. The most he could learn,
+after researches among the old registers of the parish of Périac,
+was that the Sire Barbier (Hippolyte Jean), scrivener, lived at the
+beginning of the eighteenth century. At what epoch was his office
+closed? For what reasons were his papers transported to Nantes? Perhaps
+we may suppose that owing to certain circumstances, one of the lords
+of Roche-Périac left the country and settled down at Nantes with his
+furniture, his horses, and his household down to the village scrivener.
+Anyhow, for nearly two hundred years the letter intrusted to the strict
+care of the scrivener Barbier and his successors, lay at the bottom of
+drawers and pigeon-holes, without any one's having tried to violate the
+secrecy enjoined by the writer of it. And so it came about that in all
+probability it would fall to my lot to break the seal!"
+
+Maître Delarue made a pause and looked at his auditors. They were,
+as they say, hanging on his lips. Pleased with the impression he had
+produced, he tapped the leather satchel, and continued:
+
+"Need I tell you that my thoughts have very often dwelt on this
+prospect and that I have been curious to learn the contents of such
+a letter? A journey even which I made to this château gave me no
+information, in spite of my searches in the archives of the villages
+and towns of the district. Then the appointed time drew near. Before
+doing anything I went to consult the president of the civil court.
+A question presented itself. If the letter was to be considered a
+testamentary disposition, perhaps I ought not to open it except in
+the presence of that magistrate. That was my opinion. It was not his.
+He was of the opinion that we were confronted by a display of fantasy
+(he went so far as to murmur the word 'humbug') which was outside the
+scope of the law and that I should act quite simply. 'A trysting-place
+beneath the elm,' he said, joking, 'has been fixed for you at noon on
+the 12th of July. Go there, Monsieur Delarue, break the seal of the
+missive in accordance with the instructions, and come back and tell me
+all about it. I promise you not not to laugh if you come back looking
+like a fool.' Accordingly, in a very sceptical state of mind, I took
+the train to Vannes, then the coach, and then hired a donkey to bring
+me to the ruins. You can imagine my surprise at finding that I was not
+alone under the elm--I mean the clock--at the rendezvous but that all
+of you were waiting for me."
+
+The four young people laughed heartily. Marco Dario, of Genoa, said:
+
+"All the same the business grows serious."
+
+George Errington, of London, added:
+
+"Perhaps the story of the treasure is not so absurd."
+
+"Monsieur Delarue's letter is going to inform us," said Dorothy.
+
+So the moment had come. They gathered more closely round the notary.
+A certain gravity mingled with the gayety on the young faces; and it
+grew deeper when Maître Delarue displayed before the eyes of all one
+of those large square envelopes which formerly one made oneself out
+of a thick sheet of paper. It was discolored with that peculiar shine
+which only the lapse of time can give to paper. It was sealed with
+five seals, once upon a time red perhaps, but now of a grayish violet
+seamed by a thousand little cracks like a network of wrinkles. In the
+left-hand corner at the top, the formula of transmission must have been
+renewed several times, traced afresh with ink by the successors of the
+scrivener Barbier.
+
+"The seals are quite intact," said Monsieur Delarue. "You can even
+manage to make out the three Latin words of the motto."
+
+"_In robore fortuna_," said Dorothy.
+
+"Ah, you know?" said the notary, surprised.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur Delarue, yes, they are the same as those engraved on the
+gold medals, and those I discovered just now, half rubbed out, under
+the face of the clock."
+
+"We have here an indisputable connection," said the notary, "which
+draws together the different parts of the affair and confers on it an
+authenticity----"
+
+"Open the letter--open it, Monsieur Delarue," said Dorothy impatiently.
+
+Three of the seals were broken; the envelope was unfolded. It contained
+a large sheet of parchment, broken into four pieces which separated and
+had to be put together again.
+
+From top to bottom and on both sides the sheet of parchment was covered
+with large handwriting with bold down-strokes, which had evidently been
+written in indelible ink. The lines almost touched and the letters were
+so close together that the whole had the appearance of an old printed
+page in a very large type.
+
+"I'm going to read it," murmured Monsieur Delarue.
+
+"Don't lose a second--for the love of God!" cried Dorothy.
+
+He took a second pair of glasses from his pocket and put them on over
+the first, and read:
+
+    "'_Written this day, the 12th of July, 1721_ ...'"
+
+"Two centuries!" gasped the notary and began again:
+
+    "'_Written this day, the 12th of July, 1721, the last day of my
+    existence, to be read the 12th of July, 1921, the first day of my
+    resurrection._'"
+
+The notary stopped short. The young people looked at one another with
+an air of stupefaction.
+
+Archibald Webster, of Philadelphia, observed:
+
+"This gentleman was mad."
+
+"The word resurrection is perhaps used in a symbolic sense," said
+Maître Delarue. "We shall learn from what follows: I will continue:
+
+    "'_My children_'...."
+
+He stopped again and said:
+
+"'_My children_'.... He is addressing you."
+
+"For goodness sake, Maître Delarue, do not stop again, I beg you!"
+exclaimed Dorothy. "All this is thrilling."
+
+"Nevertheless...."
+
+"No, Maître Delarue, comment is useless. We're eager to know, aren't
+we, comrades?"
+
+The four young men supported her vehemently.
+
+Thereupon the notary resumed his reading, with the hesitation and
+repetitions imposed by the difficulties of the text:
+
+    "'_My children_,
+
+    "'_On leaving a meeting of the Academy of the sciences of Paris, to
+    which Monsieur de Fontenelle had had the goodness to invite me, the
+    illustrious author of the "Discourses on the Plurality of Worlds,"
+    seized me by the arm and said:_
+
+    "'Marquis, would you mind enlightening me on a point about which,
+    it seems, you maintain a shrinking reserve? How did you get that
+    wound on your left hand, get your _fourth finger cut off at the
+    very root? The story goes that you left that finger at the bottom
+    of one of your retorts, for you have the reputation, Marquis, of
+    being something of an alchemist, and of seeking, inside the walls
+    of your Château of Roche-Périac, the elixir of life._'
+
+    "'I do not seek it, Monsieur de Fontenelle,' I answered, 'I possess
+    it.'
+
+    "'Truly?'
+
+    "'Truly, Monsieur de Fontenelle, and if you will permit me to put
+    you in possession of a small phial, the pitiless Fate will
+    certainly have to wait till your hundredth year.'
+
+    "'I accept with the greatest pleasure,' he said, laughing--'on
+    condition that you keep me company. We are of the same age--which
+    gives us another forty good years to live.'
+
+    "'For my part, Monsieur de Fontenelle, to live longer does not
+    greatly appeal to me. What is the good of sticking stubbornly to a
+    world in which no new spectacle can surprise and in which the day
+    that is coming will be the same as the day that is done. What I
+    wish to do is to come to life again, to come to life again in a
+    century or two, to make the acquaintance of my grandchildren's
+    children, and see what men have done since our time. There will be
+    great changes here below, in the government of empires as well as
+    in everyday life. I shall learn about them.'
+
+    "'Bravo, Marquis!' exclaimed Monsieur de Fontenelle, who seemed
+    more and more amused. 'Bravo! It is another elixir which will give
+    you this marvelous power.'
+
+    "'Another,' I asserted. 'I brought it back with me from India,
+    where, as you know, I spent ten years of my youth, becoming the
+    friend of the priests of that marvelous country, from which every
+    revelation and every religion came to us. They initiated me into
+    some of their chief mysteries.'
+
+    "'Why not into all?' asked Monsieur de Fontenelle, with a touch of
+    irony.
+
+    "'There are some secrets which they refused to reveal to me, such
+    as the power to communicate with those other worlds, about which
+    you have just discoursed so admirably, Monsieur de Fontenelle, and
+    the power to live again.'
+
+    "Nevertheless, Marquis, you claim----'
+
+    "'That secret, Monsieur de Fontenelle, I stole; and to punish me
+    for the theft they sentenced me to the punishment of having all my
+    fingers torn off. After pulling off the first finger, they offered
+    to pardon me, if I consented to restore the phial I had stolen. I
+    told them where it was hidden. But I had taken the precaution
+    beforehand to change the contents, having poured the elixir into
+    another phial.'
+
+    "'So that, at the cost of one of your fingers, you have purchased
+    a kind of immortality.... Of which you propose to make use. Eh,
+    Marquis,' said Monsieur de Fontenelle.
+
+    "'As soon as I shall have put my affairs in order,' I answered;
+    'that is to say, in about a couple of years.'
+
+    "'You're going to make use of it to live again?'
+
+    "'In the year of grace 1921.'
+
+    "My story caused Monsieur de Fontenelle the greatest amusement;
+    and in taking leave of me, he promised to relate it in his Memoirs
+    as a proof of my lively imagination--and doubtless, as he said to
+    himself, of my insanity."
+
+Maître Delarue paused to take breath and looked round the circle with
+questioning eyes.
+
+Marco Dario, of Genoa, threw back his head and laughed. The Russian
+showed his white teeth. The two Anglo-Saxons seemed greatly amused.
+
+"Rather a joke," said George Errington, of London, with a chuckle.
+
+"Some farce," said Archibald Webster, of Philadelphia.
+
+Dorothy said nothing; her eyes were thoughtful.
+
+Silence fell and Maître Dalarue continued:
+
+    "Monsieur de Fontenelle was wrong to laugh, my children. There was
+    no imagination or insanity about it. The great Indian priests know
+    things that we do not know and never shall know; and I am the
+    master of one of the most wonderful of their secrets. The time has
+    come to make use of it. I am resolved to do so. Last year, my wife
+    was killed by accident, leaving me in bitter sorrow. My four sons,
+    like me of a venturesome spirit, are fighting or in business in
+    foreign lands. I live alone. Shall I drag on to the end an old age
+    that is useless and without charm? No. Everything is ready for my
+    departure ... and for my return. My old servants, Geoffrey and his
+    wife, faithful companions for thirty years, with a full knowledge
+    of my project, have sworn to obey me. I say good-bye to my age.
+
+    "Learn, my children, the events which are about to take place at
+    the Château of Roche-Périac. At two o'clock in the afternoon I
+    shall fall into a stupor. The doctor, summoned by Geoffrey, will
+    ascertain that my heart is no longer beating. I shall be quite dead
+    as far as human knowledge goes; and my servants will nail me up in
+    the coffin which is ready for me. When night comes, Geoffrey and
+    his wife will take me out of that coffin and carry me on a
+    stretcher, to the ruins of Cocquesin tower, the oldest donjon of
+    the Lords of Périac. Then they will fill the coffin with stones and
+    nail it up again.
+
+    "For his part, Master Barbier, executor of my will and
+    administrator of my property, will find in my drawer instructions,
+    charging him to notify my four sons of my death and to convey to
+    each of the four his share of his inheritance. Moreover by means
+    of a special courier he will dispatch to each a gold medal which
+    I have had struck, engraved with my motto and the date the 12th of
+    July, 1921, the day of my resurrection. This medal will be
+    transmitted from hand to hand, from generation to generation,
+    beginning with the eldest son or grandson, in such a manner that
+    not more than two persons shall know the secret at one time. Lastly
+    Master Barbier will keep this letter, which I am going to seal with
+    five seals, and which will be transmitted from scrivener to
+    scrivener till the appointed date.
+
+    "When you read this letter, my children, the hour of noon on the
+    12th of July, 1921, will have struck. You will be gathered together
+    under the clock of my château, fifty yards from old Cocquesin
+    tower, where I shall have been sleeping for two centuries. I have
+    chosen it as my resting-place, calculating that, if the revolutions
+    which I foresee destroy the buildings in use, they will leave alone
+    that which is already a crumbling ruin. Then, going along the
+    avenue of oaks, which my father planted, you will come to this
+    tower, which will doubtless be much the same as it is to-day. You
+    will stop under the arch from which the draw-bridge was formerly
+    raised, and one of you counting to the left, from the groove of the
+    portcullis, the third stone above it, will push it straight before
+    him, while another, counting on the right, always from the groove,
+    the third stone above it, will do as the first is doing. Under this
+    double pressure, exercised at the same time, the middle of the
+    right wall will swing back inwards and form an incline, which will
+    bring you to the bottom of a stone staircase in the thickness of
+    the wall.
+
+    "Lighted by a torch, you will ascend a hundred and thirty-two
+    steps, they will bring you to a partition of plaster which Geoffrey
+    will have built up after my death. You will break it down with a
+    pick-ax, waiting for you on the last step, and you will see a small
+    massive door, the key of which only turns if one presses at the
+    same time the three bricks which form part of that step.
+
+    "Through that door you will enter a chamber in which there will be
+    a bed behind curtains. You will draw aside those curtains. I shall
+    be sleeping there.
+
+    "Do not be surprised, my children, at finding me younger perhaps
+    than the portrait of me which Monsieur Nicolas de Largillière, the
+    King's painter, painted last year, and which hangs at the head of
+    my bed. Two centuries' sleep, the resting of my heart, which will
+    scarcely beat, will, I have no doubt, have filled up my wrinkles
+    and restored youth to my features. It will not be an old man you
+    will gaze upon.
+
+    "My children, the phial will be on a stool beside the bed, wrapped
+    in linen, corked with virgin wax. You will at once break the neck
+    of the phial. While one of you opens my teeth with the point of a
+    knife, another will pour the elixir, not drop by drop but in a thin
+    trickle, which should flow down to the bottom of my throat. Some
+    minutes will pass. Then little by little life will return. The
+    beating of my heart will grow quicker. My breast will rise and
+    fall; and my eyes will open.
+
+    "Perhaps, my children, it will be necessary for you to speak in low
+    voices, and not light up the room with too bright a light, that my
+    eyes and ears may not suffer any shock. Perhaps on the other hand I
+    shall only see you and hear you indistinctly, with enfeebled
+    organs. I do not know. I foresee a period of torpor and uneasiness,
+    during which I shall have to collect my thoughts as one does on
+    awaking from sleep. Moreover I shall make no haste about it, and I
+    beg you not to try to quicken my efforts. Quiet days and a
+    nourishing diet will insensibly restore me to the sweetness of
+    life.
+
+    "Have no fear at all that I shall need to live at your expense.
+    Unknown to my relations I brought back from the Indies four
+    diamonds of extraordinary size, which I have hidden in a
+    hiding-place there is no finding. They will easily suffice to
+    keep me in luxury befitting my station.
+
+    "Since I have to take into consideration that I may have forgotten
+    the secret hiding-place of the diamonds, I have set forth the
+    secret in some lines enclosed herein in a second envelope bearing
+    the designation 'The Codicil.'
+
+    "Of this codicil I have not breathed a word, not even to my servant
+    Geoffrey and his wife. If out of human weakness they bequeath to
+    their children an account revealing my secret history, they will
+    not be able to reveal the hiding-place of those four marvelous
+    diamonds, which they have often admired and which they will seek
+    in vain after I am gone.
+
+    "The enclosed envelope then will be handed over to me as soon as I
+    return to life. In the event--to my thinking impossible, but which
+    none the less your interests compel me to take into account--of
+    destiny having betrayed me and of your finding no trace of me, you
+    will yourselves open the envelope and learning the whereabouts of
+    the hiding-place, take possession of the diamonds. Then and
+    thereafter I declare that the ownership of the diamonds is vested
+    in those of my descendants who shall present the gold medal, and
+    that no person shall have the right to intervene in the fair
+    partition of them, on which they shall agree among themselves, and
+    I beg them to make that partition themselves as their consciences
+    shall direct.
+
+    "I have said what I have to say, my children. I am about to enter
+    into the silence and await your coming. I do not doubt that you
+    will come from all the corners of the earth at the imperious
+    summons of the gold medal. Sprung from the same stock, be as
+    brothers and sisters among yourselves. Approach with serious minds
+    him who sleeps, and deliver him from the bonds which keep him in
+    the kingdom of darkness.
+
+    "Written by my own hand, in perfect health of mind and body, this
+    day, the 12th of July, 1721. Delivered under my hand and seal.
+
+    "Jean-Pierre-Augustin de la Roche, Marquis de ----"
+
+Maître Delarue was silent, bent nearer to the paper, and murmured:
+
+"The signature is scarcely legible: the name begins with a B or an
+R ... the flourish muddles up all the letters."
+
+Dorothy said slowly:
+
+"Jean-Pierre-Augustin de la Roche, Marquis de Beaugreval."
+
+"Yes, yes: that's it!" cried the notary at once. "Marquis de
+Beaugreval. How did you know?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE ELIXIR OF RESURRECTION
+
+
+Dorothy did not answer. She was still quite absorbed in the strange
+will of the Marquis. Her companions, their eyes fixed on her, seemed
+to be waiting for her to express an opinion; and since she remained
+silent, George Earrington, of London, said:
+
+"Not a bad joke. What?"
+
+She shook her head:
+
+"Is it quite certain, cousin, that it is a joke?"
+
+"Oh, mademoiselle! This resurrection ... the elixir ... the hidden
+diamonds!"
+
+"I don't say that it isn't," said Dorothy, smiling. "The old fellow
+does seem to me a trifle cracked. Nevertheless the letter he has
+written to us is certainly authentic; at the end of two centuries
+we have come, as he foresaw that we should, to the rendezvous he
+appointed, and above all we are certainly members of the same family."
+
+"I think that we might start embracing all over again, mademoiselle."
+
+"I'm sure, if our ancestor permits it, I shall be charmed," said
+Dorothy.
+
+"But he does permit it."
+
+"We'll go and ask him."
+
+Maître Delarue protested:
+
+"You'll go without me, mademoiselle. Understand once and for all that I
+am not going to see whether Jean-Pierre-Augustin de la Roche, Marquis
+de Beaugreval, is still alive at the age of two hundred and sixty-two
+years!"
+
+"But he isn't as old as all that, Maître Delarue. We need not count the
+two hundred years' sleep. Then it's only a matter of sixty-two years;
+that's quite normal. His friend, Monsieur de Fontenelle, as the Marquis
+predicted and thanks to an elixir of life, lived to be a hundred."
+
+"In fact you do not believe in it, mademoiselle?"
+
+"No. But all the same there should be something in it."
+
+"What else can there be in it?"
+
+"We shall know presently. But at the moment I confess to my shame that
+I should like before----"
+
+She paused; and with one accord they cried:
+
+"What?"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Well, the truth is I'm hungry--hungry with a two-hundred-year-old
+hunger--as hungry as the Marquis de Beaugreval must be. Has any of you
+by any chance----"
+
+The three young men darted away. One ran to his motor-cycle, the other
+two to their horses. Each had a haversack full of provisions which
+they brought and set out on the grass at Dorothy's feet. The Russian
+Kourobelef, who had only a slice of bread, dragged a large flat stone
+in front of her by way of table.
+
+"This is really nice!" she said, clapping her hands. "A real family
+lunch! We invite you to join us, Maître Delarue, and you also, soldier
+of Wrangel."
+
+The meal, washed down by the good wine of Anjou, was a merry one. They
+drank the health of the worthy nobleman who had had the excellent idea
+of bringing them together at his château; and Webster made a speech in
+his honor.
+
+The diamonds, the codicil, the survival of their ancestor and his
+resurrection had become so many trifles to which they paid no further
+attention. For them the adventure came to an end with the reading of
+the letter and the improvised meal. And even so it was amazing enough!
+
+"And so amusing!" said Dorothy, who kept laughing. "I assure you that I
+have never been so amused--never."
+
+Her four cousins, as she called them, hung on her lips and never took
+their eyes off her, amused and astonished by everything she said.
+At first sight they had understood her and she had understood them,
+without the five of them having to pass through the usual stages of
+becoming intimate, through which people who are thrown together for
+the first time generally have to pass. To them she was grace, beauty,
+spirit and freshness. She represented the charming country from which
+their ancestors had long ago departed; they found in her at once a
+sister of whom they were proud and a woman they burned to win.
+
+Already rivals, each of them strove to appear at his best.
+
+Errington, Webster, and Dario organized contests, feats of strength,
+exhibitions of balancing; they ran races. The only prize they asked for
+was that Dorothy, queen of the tourney, should regard them with favor
+with those beautiful eyes, of which they felt the profound seduction,
+and which appeared to them the most beautiful eyes they had ever seen.
+
+But the winner of the tournament was Dorothy herself. Directly she took
+part in it, all that the others could do was to sit down, look on, and
+wonder. A fragment of wall, of which the top had crumbled so thin that
+it was nearly a sharp edge, served her as a tight-rope. She climbed
+trees and let herself drop from branch to branch. Springing upon the
+big horse of Dario she forced him through the paces of a circus horse.
+Then, seizing the bridle of the pony, she did a turn on the two of
+them, lying down, standing up, or astride.
+
+She performed all these feats with a modest grace, full of reserve,
+without a trace of coquetry. The young men were no less enthusiastic
+than amazed. The acrobat delighted them. But the young girl inspired
+them with a respect from which not one of them dreamt of departing. Who
+was she? They called her princess, laughing; but their laughter was
+full of deference. Really they did not understand it.
+
+It was not till three in the afternoon that they decided to carry
+the adventure to its end. They all started to do so in the spirit of
+picnickers. Maître Delarue, to whose head the good wine of Anjou had
+mounted in some quantity, with his broad bow unknotted and his tall hat
+on the back of his head, led the way on his donkey, chanting couplets
+about the resurrection of Marquis Lazarus. Dario, of Genoa, imitated
+a mandolin accompaniment. Errington and Webster held over Dorothy's
+head, to keep the sun off it, an umbrella made of ferns and wild
+flowers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They went round the hillock, which was composed of the débris of the
+old château, behind the clock and along a beautiful avenue of trees
+centuries old, which ended in a circular glade in the middle of which
+rose a magnificent oak.
+
+Maître Delarue said in the tone of a guide:
+
+"These are the trees planted by the Marquis de Beaugreval's father.
+You will observe their vigor. Venerable trees, if ever there were any!
+Behold the oak king! Whole generations have taken shelter under his
+boughs. Hats off, gentlemen!"
+
+Then they came to the woody slopes of a small hill, on the summit of
+which in the middle of a circular embankment, formed by the ruins of
+the wall that had encircled it, rose a tower oval in shape.
+
+"Cocquesin tower," said Maître Delarue, more and more cheerful.
+"Venerable ruins, if ever there were any! Remnants of the feudal keep!
+That's where the sleeping Marquis of the enchanted wood is waiting
+for us, whom we're going to resuscitate with a thimbleful of foaming
+elixir."
+
+The blue sky appeared through the empty windows. Whole masses of
+wall had fallen down. However, the whole of the right side seemed
+to be intact; and if there really was a staircase and some kind of
+habitation, as the Marquis had stated, it could only be in that part of
+the tower.
+
+And now the arch, against which the draw-bridge had formerly been
+raised opened before them. The approach to it was so blocked by
+interlaced briars and bushes, that it took them a long time to reach
+the vault in which were the stones indicated by the Marquis de
+Beaugreval.
+
+Then, another barrier of fallen stones, and another effort to clear a
+double path to the two walls.
+
+"Here we are," said Dorothy at last. She had directed their labors.
+"And we can be quite sure that no one has been before us."
+
+Before beginning the operation which had been enjoined on them they
+went to the end of the vault. It opened on to the immense nave formed
+by the interior of the keep, its stories fallen away, its only roof the
+sky. They saw, one above the other, the embrasures of four fireplaces,
+under chimney-pieces of sculptured stone, full now of wild plants.
+
+One might have described it as the oval of a Roman amphitheater, with
+a series of small vaulted chambers above, of which one perceived the
+gaping openings, separated by passages into distinct groups.
+
+"The visitors who risk coming to Roche-Périac can enter from this
+side," said Dorothy. "Wedding parties from the neighborhood must
+come here now and then. Look: there are greasy pieces of paper and
+sardine-tins scattered about on the ground."
+
+"It's odd that the draw-bridge vault hasn't been cleared out," said
+Webster.
+
+"By whom? Do you think that picnickers are going to waste their time
+doing what we have done, when on the opposite side there are easy
+entrances?"
+
+They did not seem in any hurry to get to work to verify the statements
+of the Marquis; and it was rather to have their consciences clear
+and to be able to say to themselves without any equivocation, "The
+adventure is finished," that they attacked the walls of the vault.
+
+Dorothy, sceptical as the others, again carelessly took command, and
+said: "Come on, cousins. You didn't come from America and Russia to
+stand still with folded arms. We owe our ancestor this proof of our
+good will before we have the right to throw our medals into drawers.
+Dario, of Genoa--Errington, be so good as to push, each on the side
+you are, the third stone at the top. Yes: those two, since this is the
+groove in which the old portcullis worked."
+
+The stones were a good height above the ground, so that the Englishman
+and the Italian had to raise their arms to reach them. Following
+Dorothy's advice, they climbed on to the shoulders of Webster and
+Kourobelef.
+
+"Are you ready?"
+
+"We're ready," replied Errington and Dario.
+
+"Then push gently with a continuous pressure. And above all have faith!
+Maître Delarue has no faith. So I am not asking him to do anything."
+
+The two young men set their hands against the two stones and pushed
+hard.
+
+"Come: a little vigor!" said Dorothy in a tone of jest. "The statements
+of the Marquis are gospel truth. He has written that the stone on the
+right will slip back. Let the stone on the right slip back."
+
+"Mine _is_ moving," said the Englishman, on the left.
+
+"So is mine," said the Italian, on the right.
+
+"It isn't possible!" cried Dorothy incredulously.
+
+"But it is! But it is!" declared the Englishman. "And the stone above
+it, too. They are slipping back from the top."
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth, when the two stones, forming
+one piece, slipped back into the interior of the wall and revealed in
+the semi-darkness the foot of a staircase and some steps.
+
+The Englishman uttered a cry of triumph:
+
+"The worthy gentleman did not lie! There's the staircase!"
+
+For a moment they remained speechless. Not that there was anything
+extraordinary in the affair so far; but it was a confirmation of the
+first part of the Marquis de Beaugreval's statement; and they asked
+themselves if the rest of his predictions would not be fulfilled with
+the same exactness.
+
+"If it turns out that there are a hundred and thirty-two steps, I shall
+declare myself convinced," said Errington.
+
+"What?" said Maître Delarue, who also appeared deeply impressed. "Do
+you mean to assert that the Marquis----"
+
+"That the Marquis is awaiting us like a man who is expecting our visit."
+
+"You're raving," growled the notary. "Isn't he, mademoiselle?"
+
+The young men hauled themselves on to the landing formed by the stones
+which had slipped back. Dorothy joined them. Two electric pocket-lamps
+took the place of the torch suggested by the Marquis de Beaugreval, and
+they set about mounting the high steps which wound upwards in a very
+narrow space.
+
+"Fifteen--sixteen--seventeen," Dario counted.
+
+To hearten himself, Maître Delarue sang the couplets of "da Tour,
+prende garde." But at the thirtieth step he began to save his breath.
+
+"It's a steep climb, isn't it?" said Dorothy.
+
+"Yes it is. But it's chiefly the idea of paying a visit to a dead man.
+It makes my legs a bit shaky."
+
+At the fiftieth step a hole in the wall let in some light. Dorothy
+looked out and saw the woods of La Roche-Périac; but a cornice, jutting
+out, prevented her from seeing the ground at the foot of the keep.
+
+They continued the ascent. Maître Delarue kept singing in a more and
+more shaky voice, and towards the end it was rather a groaning than a
+singing.
+
+"A hundred ... a hundred and ten ... a hundred and twenty."
+
+At a hundred and thirty-two he made the announcement:
+
+"It is indeed the last. A wall blocks the staircase. About this also
+our ancestor was telling the truth."
+
+"And are there three bricks let into the step?"
+
+"There are."
+
+"And a pick-ax?"
+
+"It's here."
+
+"Come: on getting to the top of the staircase and examining what we
+find there, every detail agrees with the will, so that we have only to
+carry out the good man's final instructions." She said: "Break down the
+wall, Webster. It's only a plaster partition."
+
+At the first blow in fact the wall crumbled away, disclosing a small,
+low door.
+
+"Goodness!" muttered the lawyer, who was no longer trying to dissemble
+his uneasiness. "The program is indeed being carried out item by item."
+
+"Ah, you're becoming a trifle less sceptical, Maître Delarue. You'll be
+declaring next that the door will open."
+
+"I do declare it. This old lunatic was a clever mechanician and a
+scenical producer of the first order."
+
+"You speak of him as if he were dead," observed Dorothy.
+
+The notary seized her arm.
+
+"Of course I do! I'm quite willing to admit that he's behind this door.
+But alive? No, no! Certainly not!"
+
+She put her foot on one of the bricks. Errington and Dario pressed the
+two others. The door jerked violently, quivered, and turned on its
+hinges.
+
+"Holy Virgin!" murmured Dario. "We're confronted by a genuine miracle.
+Are we going to see Satan?"
+
+By the light of their lamps they perceived a fair-sized room with an
+arched ceiling. No ornament relieved the bareness of the stone walls.
+There was nothing in the way of furniture in it. But one judged that
+there was a small, low room, which formed an alcove, from the piece of
+tapestry, roughly nailed to a beam, which ran along the left side of it.
+
+The five men and Dorothy did not stir, silent, motionless. Maître
+Delarue, extremely pale, seemed very ill at ease indeed.
+
+Was it the fumes of wine, or the distress inspired by mystery?
+
+No one was smiling any longer. Dorothy could not withdraw her eyes from
+the piece of tapestry. So the adventure did not come to an end with the
+astonishing meeting of the Marquis' heirs, nor with the reading of
+his fantastic will. It went as far as the hollow stairway in the old
+tower, to which no one had ever penetrated, to the very threshold of
+the inviolable retreat in which the Marquis had drunk the draft which
+brings sleep.... Or which kills. What was there behind the tapestry? A
+bed, of course ... some garments which kept perhaps the shape of the
+body they had covered ... and besides, a handful of ashes.
+
+She turned her head to her companions as if to say to them:
+
+"Shall I go first?"
+
+They stood motionless--undecided, ill at ease.
+
+Then she took a step forward--then two. The tapestry was within reach.
+With a hesitating hand she took hold of the edge of it, while the young
+men drew nearer.
+
+They turned the light of their lamps into the alcove.
+
+At the back of it was a bed. On that bed lay a man.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This vision was, in spite of everything, so unexpected, that for
+a few seconds Dorothy's legs almost failed her, and she let the
+tapestry fall. It was Archibald Webster who, deeply perturbed, raised
+it quickly, and walked briskly to this sleeping man, as if he were
+about to shake him and awake him forthwith. The others tumbled into
+the alcove after him. Archibald stopped short at the bed, with his arm
+raised, and dared not make another movement.
+
+One might have judged the man on the bed to be sixty years old.
+
+But in the strange paleness of that wholly colorless skin, beneath
+which flowed no single drop of blood, there was something that was
+of no age. A face absolutely hairless. Not an eyelash, no eyebrows.
+The nose, cartilage and all, transparent like the noses of some
+consumptives. No flesh. A jaw, bones, cheek-bones, large sunken
+eyelids. That was the face between two sticking-out ears; and above it
+was an enormous forehead running up into an entirely bald skull.
+
+"The finger--the finger!" murmured Dorothy.
+
+The fourth finger of the left hand was missing, cut exactly level with
+the palm as the will had stated.
+
+The man was dressed in a coat of chestnut-colored cloth, a black silk
+waistcoat, embroidered in green, and breeches. His stockings were of
+fine wool. He wore no shoes.
+
+"He _must_ be dead," said one of the young men in a low voice.
+
+To make sure, it would have been necessary to bend down and apply one's
+ear to the breast above the heart. But they had an odd feeling that, at
+the slightest touch, this shape of a man would crumble to dust and so
+vanish like a phantom.
+
+Besides, to make such an experiment, would it not be to commit
+sacrilege? To suspect death and question a corpse: none of them dared.
+
+Dorothy shivered, her womanly nerves strained to excess. Maître Delarue
+besought her:
+
+"Let's get away.... It's got nothing to do with us.... It's a devilish
+business."
+
+But George Errington had an idea. He took a small mirror from his
+pocket and held it close to the man's lips. After the lapse of some
+seconds there was a film on it.
+
+"Oh! I b-b-believe he's alive!" he stammered.
+
+"He's alive! He's alive!" muttered the young people, keeping with
+difficulty their excitement within bounds.
+
+Maître Delarue's legs were so shaky that he had to sit down on the foot
+of the bed. He murmured again and again:
+
+"A devilish business! We've no right----"
+
+They kept looking at one another with troubled faces. The idea that
+this dead man was alive--for he was dead, undeniably dead--the idea
+that this dead man was alive shocked them as something monstrous.
+
+And yet was not the evidence that he was alive quite as strong as the
+evidence that he was dead? They believed in his death because it was
+impossible that he should be alive. But could they deny the evidence of
+their own eyes because that evidence was against all reason?
+
+Dorothy said:
+
+"Look: his chest rises and falls--you can see it--ever so slowly and
+ever so little. But it does. Then he is _not_ dead."
+
+They protested.
+
+"No.... It's out of the question. Such a phenomenon would be
+inexplicable."
+
+"I'm not so sure ... I'm not so sure. It might be a kind of
+lethargy ... a kind of hypnotic trance," she murmured.
+
+"A trance which lasted two hundred years?"
+
+"I don't know.... I don't understand it."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, we must act."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"As the will tells us to act. The instructions are quite definite. Our
+duty is to execute them blindly and without question."
+
+"How?"
+
+"We must try to awaken him with the elixir of which the will speaks."
+
+"Here it is," said Marco Dario, picking up from the stool a small
+object wrapped in linen. He unfolded the wrapping and displayed a
+phial, of antique shape, heavy, of crystal, with a round bottom and
+long neck which terminated in a large wax cork.
+
+He handed it to Dorothy, who broke off the top of the neck with a sharp
+tap against the edge of the stool.
+
+"Has any of you a knife?" she asked. "Thank you, Archibald. Open the
+blade and introduce the point between the teeth as the will directs."
+
+They acted as might a doctor confronted by a patient whom he does not
+know exactly how to handle, but whom he nevertheless treats, without
+the slightest hesitation, according to the formal prescription in use
+in similar cases. They would see what happened. The essential thing
+was to carry out the instructions.
+
+Archibald Webster did not find it easy to perform his task. The lips
+were tightly closed, the upper teeth, for the most part black and
+decayed, were so firmly wedged against the lower that the knife-point
+could not force its way between them. He had to introduce it sideways,
+and then raise the handle to force the jaws apart.
+
+"Don't move," said Dorothy.
+
+She bent down. Her right hand, holding the phial, tilted it gently. A
+few drops of a liquid of the color and odor of green Chartreuse fell
+between the lips; then an even trickle flowed from the phial, which was
+soon empty.
+
+"That's done," she said, straightening herself.
+
+Looking at her companions, she tried to smile. All of them were staring
+at the dead man.
+
+She murmured: "We've got to wait. It doesn't work straightaway."
+
+And as she uttered the words she thought:
+
+"And then what? I am ready to admit that it will have an effect and
+that this man will awake from sleep! Or rather from death.... For
+such a sleep is nothing but death. No: really we are the victims of a
+collective hallucination.... No: there was no film on the mirror. No:
+the chest does not rise and fall. No--a thousand times no! One does
+_not_ come to life again!"
+
+"Three minutes gone," said Marco Dario.
+
+And watch in hand, he counted, minute by minute, five more
+minutes--then five more.
+
+The waiting of these six persons would have been incomprehensible, had
+its explanation not been found in the fact that all the events foretold
+by the Marquis de Beaugreval had followed one another with mathematical
+precision. There had been a series of facts which was very like a
+series of miracles, which compelled the witnesses of those facts to be
+patient--at least till the moment fixed for the supreme miracle.
+
+"Fifteen minutes," said the Italian.
+
+A few more seconds passed. Of a sudden they quivered. A hushed
+exclamation burst from the lips of each. _The man's eyelids had moved._
+
+In a moment the phenomenon was repeated, and so clearly and distinctly
+that further doubt was impossible. It was the twitching of two eyes
+that tried to open. At the same time the arms stirred. The hands
+quivered.
+
+"Oh!" stuttered the distracted notary. "He's alive! He's alive!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+LAZARUS
+
+
+Dorothy gazed; her eyes missed no slightest movement. Like her, the
+young men remained motionless, with drawn faces. The Italian, however,
+just sketched the sign of the cross.
+
+"He's alive!" broke in Maître Delarue. "Look; he's looking at us."
+
+A strange gaze. It did not shift; it did not try to see. The gaze of
+the newly born, animated by no thought. Vague, unconscious, it shunned
+the light of the lamps and seemed ready to be extinguished in a new
+sleep. On the other hand the rest of the body became instinct with
+life, as if the blood resumed its normal course under the impulsion of
+a heart which again began to beat. The arms and the hands moved with
+purposed movements. Then suddenly the legs slipped off the bed. The
+bust was raised. After several attempts the man sat up.
+
+Then they saw him face to face; and since one of the young men raised
+his lamp that its light might not shine in his eyes, that lamp lit
+up on the wall of the alcove above the bed the portrait of which the
+Marquis had made mention. They could then perceive that it was indeed
+the portrait of the man. The same enormous brow, the same eyes deeply
+sunk in their orbits, the same high cheek-bones, the same bony jaw,
+the same projecting ears. But the man, contrary to the prediction in
+the letter, had greatly aged and grown considerably thinner, for the
+portrait represented a nobleman of good appearance and sufficiently
+plump.
+
+Twice he tried to stand upright without succeeding. He was too weak;
+his legs refused to support him. He seemed also to be laboring under
+a heavy oppression and to breathe with difficulty, either because he
+had lost the habit or because he needed more air. Dorothy observed two
+planks nailed to the wall, pointed them out to Dario and Webster, and
+signed to them to pull them down. It was easy to do so, for they were
+not nailed very firmly to the wall; and they uncovered a small round
+window, a bull's-eye rather, not more than a foot or fifteen inches
+across.
+
+A whiff of fresh air blew into the room all round the man sitting on
+the bed; and for all that he appeared to have no understanding of
+anything, he turned towards the window, and opening his mouth, drew in
+great breaths.
+
+All these trifling incidents were spread over a considerable time.
+The astonished witnesses of them had a feeling that they were taking
+part in the mysterious phases of a resurrection which they were wholly
+unable to consider final. Every minute gained by this living dead man
+appeared to them a new miracle which passed all imagining, and they
+hoped for the inevitable event which would restore things to their
+natural order, and which would be as it were the disarticulation and
+crumbling away of this incredible automaton.
+
+Dorothy stamped her foot impatiently, as if she were struggling against
+herself and trying to shake off a torpor.
+
+She turned away from this sight which fascinated her, and her face took
+on an expression of such profound thought, that her companions withdrew
+their eyes from the man to watch her. Her eyes were seeking something.
+Their blue irises became of a deeper blue. They seemed to see beyond
+what ordinary eyes see and to pursue the truth into more distant
+regions.
+
+At the end of a minute or two she said:
+
+"We must try."
+
+She went firmly to the bed. After all here was a clear and definite
+phenomenon; it had to be taken into account: this man was alive. It was
+necessary therefore to treat him as a living being, who has ears to
+hear and a mouth to speak with, and who distinguishes the things about
+him by a personal existence. This man had a name. Every circumstance
+pointed directly to the fact that his presence in this sealed chamber
+was the result not of a miracle--a hypothesis which they need only
+examine as a last resort--but of an experiment that had succeeded--a
+hypothesis which one had no right to set aside for _a priori_ reasons,
+however astonishing it might appear to be.
+
+Then why not question him?
+
+She sat down beside him, took his hands, which were cold and moist, in
+hers and said gravely:
+
+"We have hastened hither at your summons.... We are they to whom the
+gold medal----"
+
+She stopped. The words were not coming easily to her. They seemed
+to her absurd and childish; and she was quite certain that they must
+appear so to those who heard them. But she must make an effort to
+continue:
+
+"In our families the gold medal has passed from hand to hand right
+down to us.... It is now for two centuries that the tradition has been
+forming and that your will----"
+
+But she was incapable of continuing on these pompous lines. Another
+voice within her murmured:
+
+"Goodness, how idiotic what I am saying is!"
+
+However, the hands of the man were growing warm from their contact with
+hers. He almost wore an air of hearing the noise of her words and of
+understanding that they were addressed to him. And so, dropping the
+phrase-making, she brought herself to speak to him simply, as to a poor
+man whom his resurrection did not set apart from human necessities:
+
+"Are you hungry?... Do you want to eat? ... to drink? Answer. What
+would you like?... My friends and I will try...."
+
+The old man, with the light full on his face, his mouth open, his lower
+lip hanging down, preserved a dull and stupid countenance, animated by
+no expression, no desire.
+
+Without turning away from him, Dorothy called out to the notary:
+
+"Don't you think we ought to offer him the second envelope, Maître
+Delarue, the codicil? His understanding may perhaps awake at the sight
+of this paper which formerly belonged to him, and which, according to
+the instructions in the will, we're to hand over to him."
+
+Maître Delarue agreed with her and passed the envelope to her. She held
+it out to the old man, saying:
+
+"Here are the directions for finding the diamonds, written by yourself.
+No one knows these directions. Here they are."
+
+She stretched out her hand. It was clear that the old man tried to
+respond with a similar movement. She accentuated the gesture. He
+lowered his eyes towards the envelope; and his fingers opened to
+receive it.
+
+"You quite understand?" she asked. "You are going to open this
+envelope. It contains the secret of the diamonds--a fortune."
+
+Once more she stopped abruptly, as if struck by a sudden thought,
+something she had unexpectedly observed.
+
+Webster said to her:
+
+"He certainly understands. When he opens the letter and reads it, the
+whole of the past will come back to his memory. We may give it to him."
+
+George Errington supported him.
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle, we may give it to him. It's a secret which belongs
+to him."
+
+Dorothy however did not perform the action she had suggested. She
+looked at the old man with the most earnest attention. Then she took
+the lamp, moved it away, then near, examined the mutilated hand, and
+then suddenly burst into a fit of wild laughter; it burst out with all
+the violence of laughter long restrained.
+
+Bent double, holding her ribs, she laughed till it hurt her. Her pretty
+head shook her wavy hair in a series of jerks. And it was a laugh
+so fresh and so young, of such irresistible gayety that the young
+men burst out laughing in their turn. Maître Delarue, on the other
+hand, irritated by a hilarity which seemed to him out of place in the
+circumstances protested in a tone of annoyance:
+
+"Really, I'm amazed.... There's nothing to laugh at in all this.... We
+are in the presence of a really extraordinary occurrence...."
+
+His shocked air re-doubled Dorothy's merriment. She stammered:
+
+"Yes--extraordinary--a miracle! Goodness, how funny it is! And what a
+pleasure it is to let one's self go! I had been holding myself in quite
+long enough. Yes, I was manifestly serious ... uneasy.... But all the
+same I did want to laugh!... It is all so funny!"
+
+The notary muttered:
+
+"I don't see anything funny in it.... The Marquis----"
+
+Dorothy's delight passed all bounds. She repeated, wringing her hands,
+with tears in her eyes:
+
+"The Marquis!... The friend of Fontenelle! The revivified Marquis!
+Lazarus de Beaugreval! Then you didn't see?"
+
+"I saw the film on the mirror ... the eyes open."
+
+"Yes, yes: I know. But the rest?"
+
+"What rest?"
+
+"In his mouth?"
+
+"What on earth is it?"
+
+"There's a...."
+
+"A what? Out with it!"
+
+"A false tooth!"
+
+Maître Delarue repeated slowly:
+
+"There's a false tooth?"
+
+"Yes, a molar ... a molar all of gold!"
+
+"Well, what about it?"
+
+Dorothy did not immediately reply. She gave Maître Delarue plenty of
+time to collect his wits and to grasp the full value of this discovery.
+
+He said again in a less assured tone:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, there you are?" she said, very much out of breath. "I ask
+myself, with positive anguish: did they make gold teeth in the days of
+Louis XIV and Louis XV?... Because, you see, if the Marquis was unable
+to get his gold tooth before he died, he must have had his dentist come
+here--to this tower--while he was dead. That is to say, he must have
+learnt from the newspapers, or from some other source, that he could
+have a false tooth put in the place of the one which used to ache in
+the days of Louis XIV."
+
+Dorothy had finally succeeded in repressing the ill-timed mirth which
+had so terribly shocked Maître Delarue. She was merely smiling--but
+smiling with an extremely mischievous and delighted air. Naturally the
+four strangers, grouped closely round her, were also smiling with the
+air of people amused beyond words.
+
+On his bed, the man, always impassive and stupid, continued his
+breathing exercises. The notary drew his companions out of the alcove,
+into the outer room so that they formed a group with their backs to
+the bed, and said in a low voice:
+
+"Then, according to you, mademoiselle, this is a mystification?"
+
+"I'm afraid so," she said, tossing her head with a humorous air.
+
+"But the Marquis?"
+
+"The Marquis has nothing to do with the matter," she said. "The
+adventure of the Marquis came to an end on the 12th of July, 1721,
+when he swallowed a drug which put an end to his brilliant existence
+for good and all. All that remains of the Marquis, in spite of his
+hopes of a resurrection, is: firstly, a pinch of ashes mingled with the
+dust of this room; secondly, the authentic and curious letter which
+Maître Delarue read to us; thirdly, a lot of enormous diamonds hidden
+somewhere or other; fourthly, the clothes he was wearing at the supreme
+hour when he voluntarily shut himself up in his tomb, that is to say in
+this room."
+
+"And those clothes?"
+
+"Our man is dressed in them--unless he bought others, since the old
+ones must have been in a very bad state."
+
+"But how could he get here? This window is too narrow; besides it's
+inaccessible. Then how?..."
+
+"Doubtless the same way we did."
+
+"Impossible! Think of all the obstacles, the difficulties, the wall of
+briers which barred the road."
+
+"Are we sure that this wall was not already pierced in some other
+place, that the plaster partition had not been broken down and
+reconstructed, that the door of this room had not been opened before
+we came?"
+
+"But it would have been necessary for this man to know the secret
+combinations of the Marquis, the mechanical device of the two stones
+and so on."
+
+"Why not? Perhaps the Marquis left a copy of his letter ... or a draft
+of it. But no.... Of course!... Better than that! We know the truth
+from the Marquis de Beaugreval himself.... He foresaw it, since he
+alludes to an always possible defection of his old servant, Geoffrey,
+and takes into account the possibility of the good fellow's writing a
+description of what had taken place. This description the good fellow
+did write, and along different lines it has come down to our time."
+
+"It's a simple supposition."
+
+"It's a supposition more than probable, Maître Delarue, since besides
+us, besides these four young men and myself, there are other families
+in which the history, or a part of the history of Beaugreval, has been
+handed down; and as a consequence for some months I've been fighting
+for the possession of the indispensable gold medal stolen from my
+father."
+
+Her words made a very deep impression. She entered into details:
+
+"The family of Chagny-Roborey in the Orne, the family of Argonne in the
+Ardennes, the family of Davernoie in Vendée, are so many focuses of the
+tradition. And around it dramas, robberies, assassinations, madness, a
+regular boiling up of passion and violence."
+
+"Nevertheless," observed Errington, "here there is no one but us. What
+are the others doing?"
+
+"They're waiting. They're waiting for a date of which they are
+ignorant. They are waiting for the medal. I saw in front of the church
+of Roche-Périac a tramp and a factory hand, a woman, from Paris. I saw
+two poor mad people who came to the rendezvous and are waiting at the
+edge of the water. A week ago I handed over to the police a dangerous
+criminal of the name of d'Estreicher, a distant connection of my
+family, who had committed a murder to obtain possession of the gold
+medal. Will you believe me now when I tell you that we are dealing with
+an impostor?"
+
+Dario said:
+
+"Then the man who is here has come to play the same part as the Marquis
+expected to play two hundred years after his death?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"With what object?"
+
+"The diamonds, I tell you--the diamonds!"
+
+"But since he knew of their existence, he had only to search for them
+and appropriate them."
+
+"You can take it from me that he has searched for them and without
+ceasing, but in vain. A fresh proof that the man only knew Geoffrey's
+story, since Geoffrey had not been informed by his master of their
+hiding-place. And it is in order to learn where this hiding-place is,
+to be present at the meeting of the descendants of the Marquis de
+Beaugreval, that he is playing to-day, the 12th of July, 1921, after
+months and years of preparation, the part of the Marquis."
+
+"A dangerous part! An impossible part!"
+
+"Possible for at least some hours, which would be enough. What do I
+say, some hours? But just think: at the end of ten minutes we were all
+of one mind about giving him the second envelope which contains the
+key to the enigma, and which was probably the actual object of his
+enterprise. He must have known of the existence of a codicil, of a
+document giving directions. But where to find that document. No longer
+any scrivener Barbier--no longer any successors. But where to find it?
+Why here! At the meeting on the 12th of July. Logically, the codicil
+must be brought to that meeting. Logically, it would be handed over
+to him. And as a matter of fact I had it in my hand. I held it out to
+him. A second later he would have obtained from it the information he
+wanted. After that, good-bye. The Marquis de Beaugreval, once possessor
+of the diamonds of the Marquis de Beaugreval, would retire into the
+void, that is to say he would bolt at full speed."
+
+Webster asked:
+
+"Why didn't you give him the envelope? Did you guess?"
+
+"Guess? No. But I distrusted him. In offering it to him I was above all
+things making an experiment. What evidence it would be against him, if
+he accepted my offer by a gesture of acceptance, inexplicable at the
+end of such a short period? He did accept. I saw his hand tremble with
+impatience. I knew where I was. But at the same time Fortune was kind
+to me; I saw that little bit of gold in his mouth."
+
+It was all linked together in a flawless chain of reasoning. Dorothy
+had set forth the coördination of events, causes and effects, as one
+displays a piece of tapestry in which the complicated play of design
+and color produces the most harmonious unity.
+
+The four young men were astounded; not one of them threw any doubt on
+her statement.
+
+Archibald Webster said:
+
+"One would think that you had been present throughout the whole
+adventure."
+
+"Yes," said Dario. "The revivified Marquis played a whole comedy before
+you."
+
+"What a power of observation and what terrible logic!" said Errington,
+of London.
+
+And Webster added:
+
+"And what intuition!"
+
+Dorothy did not respond to the praise with her habitual smile. One
+would have said that events were happening in a manner far from
+pleasing to her, which seemed to promise others which she distrusted in
+advance. But what events? What was there to fear?
+
+In the silence Maître Delarue suddenly cried:
+
+"Well, for my part, I assert that you're making a mistake. I'm not at
+all of your opinion, mademoiselle."
+
+Maître Delarue was one of those people who cling the more firmly to an
+opinion the longer they have been adopting it. The resurrection of the
+Marquis suddenly appeared to him a dogma he was bound to defend.
+
+He repeated:
+
+"Not at all of your opinion! You are piling up unfounded hypotheses.
+No: this man is not an impostor. There is evidence in his favor which
+you do not take into account."
+
+"What evidence?" she asked.
+
+"Well, his portrait! His indisputable resemblance to the portrait of
+the Marquis de Beaugreval, executed by Largillière!"
+
+"Who tells you that this is the portrait of the Marquis, and not the
+portrait of the man himself? It's a very easy way of resembling any
+one."
+
+"But this old frame? This canvas which dates from earlier days?"
+
+"Let us admit that the frame remained. Let us admit that the old
+canvas, instead of having been changed, has simply been painted over in
+such a way as to represent the false Marquis here present."
+
+"And the cut-off finger?" exclaimed Maître Delarue triumphantly.
+
+"A finger can be cut off."
+
+The notary became vehement:
+
+"Oh, no! A thousand times, no! Whatever be the attraction of the
+benefit to be derived, one does not mutilate oneself. No, no: your
+contention falls to the ground. What? You represent this fellow as
+ready to cut off his finger! This fellow with his dull face, his air of
+stupidity! But he is incapable of it! He's weak and a coward...."
+
+The argument struck Dorothy. It threw light on the most obscure part of
+the business; and she drew from it exactly the conclusions it warranted.
+
+"You're right," she said. "A man like him is incapable of mutilating
+himself."
+
+"In that case?"
+
+"In that case, some one else has charged himself with this sinister
+task."
+
+"Some one else has cut off the finger? An accomplice?"
+
+"More than an accomplice, his chief? The brain which has devised
+these combinations is not his. He is not the man who has staged the
+adventure. He is only an instrument, some common rogue chosen for his
+fleshless aspect. The man who holds the threads remains invisible; and
+he is formidable."
+
+The notary shivered.
+
+"One would say you knew him."
+
+After a pause she answered slowly:
+
+"It is possible that I do know him. If my instinct does not deceive
+me, the master criminal is the man who I handed over to justice, this
+d'Estreicher of whom I spoke just now. While he is in prison his
+accomplices--for there are several of them--have taken up the work he
+began and are trying to carry it through.... Yes, yes," she added,
+"one can well believe that it is d'Estreicher who has arranged the
+whole business. He has been engaged in the affair for years; and such
+a machination is entirely in accord with his cunning and wily spirit.
+We must be on our guard against him. Even in prison he is a dangerous
+adversary."
+
+"Dangerous ... dangerous ..." said the notary, trying to reassure
+himself. "I don't see what threatens us. Besides, the affair draws to
+its end. As regards the precious stones, open the codicil. And as far
+as I am concerned, my task is performed."
+
+"It isn't a matter of knowing whether your task is performed, Maître
+Delarue," Dorothy answered in the same thoughtful tone. "It's a matter
+of escaping a danger which is not quite clear to me but which permits
+me to expect anything, which I foresee more and more clearly. Where
+will it come from? I don't know. But it exists."
+
+"It's terrible," groaned Maître Delarue. "How are we to defend
+ourselves? What are we to do?"
+
+"What are we to do?"
+
+She turned towards the little room which served as alcove. The man no
+longer stirred, his head and face buried in the shadow.
+
+"Question him. You quite understand that this super did not come here
+alone. They have intrusted him with this post, but the others are on
+the watch, the agents of d'Estreicher. They are waiting in the wings
+for the result of the comedy. They are spying on us. Perhaps they hear
+us. Question him. He is going to tell us the measures to be taken
+against us in case of a check."
+
+"He will not speak."
+
+"But he will--he will. He is in our hands; and it is entirely to his
+interest to win our forgiveness for the part he has played. He is one
+of those people who are always on the side of the stronger.... Look at
+him."
+
+The man remained motionless. Not a gesture. However his attitude did
+not look natural. Sitting as he was, half bent over, he should have
+lost his balance.
+
+"Errington ... Webster ... light him up," Dorothy ordered.
+
+Simultaneously the rays from the two electric lamps fell on him.
+
+Some seconds passed.
+
+"Ah!" sighed Dorothy, who was the first to grasp the terrible fact; and
+she started back.
+
+All six of them were shocked by the same sight, at first inexplicable.
+The bust and the head which they believed to be motionless, were
+bending a little forward, with a movement which was hardly perceptible,
+but which did not cease. At the bottom of the orbits rose the eyes,
+quite round, eyes full of terror, which gleamed, like carbuncles, in
+the concentric fires of the two lamps. His mouth moved convulsively as
+if to utter a cry which did not issue from it. Then the head settled
+down on to the chest, dragging the bust with it. They saw for some
+seconds the ebony hilt of a dagger, the blade of which half buried in
+the right shoulder, at the junction with the neck, was streaming with
+blood. And finally the whole body huddled on to itself. Slowly, like
+a wounded beast, the man sank to his knees on the stone floor, and
+suddenly fell in a heap.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE FOURTH MEDAL
+
+
+Violent though this sensational turn was, it provoked from those who
+witnessed it neither outcries nor disorder. Something mastered their
+terror, smothered their words, and restrained their gestures: the
+impossibility of conceiving how this murder had been committed. The
+impossible resurrection of the Marquis was transformed into a miracle
+of death quite as impossible; but they could not deny this miracle
+since it had taken place before their eyes. In truth, they had the
+impression, since no living being had entered, that death itself had
+stepped over the threshold, crossed the room to the man, struck him in
+their presence with its invisible hand, and then gone away, leaving the
+murderous weapon in the corpse. None but a phantom could have passed.
+None but a phantom could have killed.
+
+"Errington," said Dorothy, who had recovered her coolness more quickly
+than her companions, "there's no one on the staircase, is there? Dario,
+surely the window is too small for any one to slip through? Webster and
+Kourobelef look to the walls of the alcove."
+
+She stooped and took the dagger from the wound. No convulsion stirred
+the victim's body. It was indeed a corpse. An examination of the
+dagger and the clothes gave no clue.
+
+Errington and Dario rendered an account of their mission. The
+staircase? Empty. The window? Too narrow.
+
+They joined the Russian and the American, as did Dorothy also; and all
+five of them examined and sounded the walls of the alcove with such
+minuteness that Dorothy expressed the absolute conviction of all of
+them when she declared in a tone of finality:
+
+"No entrance. It is impossible to admit that any one passed that way."
+
+"Then?" stuttered the notary, who was sitting on the stool and had
+not moved for the excellent reason that his legs refused to be of the
+slightest use to him. "Then?"
+
+He asked the question with a kind of humility as if he regretted not
+having admitted without opposition all Dorothy's explanations, and
+promised to accept all she should consent to give him. Dorothy, who had
+so clearly announced the peril which threatened them, and so clearly
+elucidated all the problems of this obscure affair, suddenly appeared
+to him to be a woman who makes no mistake, who cannot make any mistake.
+And owing to that fact he saw in her a powerful protection against the
+attacks which were about to ensue.
+
+Dorothy for her part felt confusedly that the truth was prowling round
+her, that she was on the point of perceiving with perfect clearness
+that which had no form, and that it was a thing which must moreover
+astonish her infinitely. Why could she not guess what was hidden
+in the shadow? It appeared almost as if she was afraid to guess it
+and that she was deliberately turning away from a danger which her
+intelligence would have pointed out to her at once, if her womanly
+instincts had not suffered her to blind herself for several minutes.
+
+Indeed, those several minutes, she lost them. Like one whom dangers
+surround and who does not know against which he must first defend
+himself, she shuffled about on one spot. She wasted time on futile
+phrases, keeping herself simply to the actual facts of the situation,
+in the hope perhaps that one of her words might strike the enlightening
+spark out of its flint.
+
+"Maître Delarue, there's a death and a crime. We must therefore inform
+the police. However ... however I think we could put it off for a day
+or two."
+
+"Put it off?" he protested. "That's a step I won't take. That is a
+formality which admits of no delay."
+
+"You will never get back to Périac."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because the band which had been able to get rid under our very eyes of
+a confederate who was in its way, must have taken precautions, and the
+road which leads to Périac must be guarded."
+
+"You believe that?... You believe that?" stuttered Maître Delarue.
+
+"I believe it."
+
+She answered in a hesitating fashion. At the moment she was suffering
+bitterly, being one of those creatures to whom uncertainty is torture.
+She had a profound impression that an essential element of the truth
+was lacking. Protected as she was in that tower, with four resolute
+men beside her, it was not she who directed events. She was under the
+constraint of the law of the enemy who was oppressing and in a way
+directing her as his fancy took him.
+
+"But it's terrible," lamented Maître Delarue. "I cannot stay here
+forever.... My practice demands my attention.... I have a wife ...
+children."
+
+"Go, Maître Delarue. But first of all hand over to us the envelope of
+the codicil that I gave back to you. We will open it in your presence."
+
+"Have you the right?"
+
+"Why not? The letter of the Marquis is explicit: 'In the event of
+Destiny having betrayed me and your finding no trace of me, you will
+yourselves open the envelope, and learning their hiding-place, take
+possession of the diamonds.' That's clear, isn't it? And since we know
+that the Marquis is dead and quite dead, we have the right to take
+possession of the four diamonds of which we are the proprietors--all
+five of us ... all five."
+
+She stopped short. She had uttered words which, as the saying goes,
+clashed curiously. The contradiction of the terms she had used--four
+diamonds, five proprietors--was so flagrant that the young men were
+struck by them, and that Maître Delarue himself, absorbed as he was in
+other matters, received a considerable shock.
+
+"As a matter of fact that's true: you are five. How was it we didn't
+notice that detail? You are five and there are only four diamonds."
+
+Dario explained.
+
+"Doubtless that arises from the fact that there are four men and that
+we have only paid attention to this number four, four strangers in
+contrast with you, mademoiselle, who are French."
+
+"But you can't get away from the fact that you are five," said Maître
+Delarue.
+
+"And what about it?" said Webster.
+
+"Well, you're five; and the Marquis, according to his letter, had only
+four sons to whom he left four gold medals. You understand, four gold
+medals?"
+
+Webster made the objection:
+
+"He could have bequeathed four ... and left five."
+
+He looked at Dorothy. She was silent. Was she going to find in this
+unexpected incident the solution of the enigma which escaped him? She
+said thoughtfully:
+
+"Always supposing that a fifth medal has not been fabricated since on
+the model of the others and then transmitted to us by a process of
+fraud."
+
+"How are we to know it?"
+
+"Let us compare our medals," she said. "An examination of them will
+enlighten us perhaps."
+
+Webster was the first to present his medal:
+
+It showed no peculiarity which gave them to believe that it was not
+one of the four original pieces struck by the instructions of the
+Marquis and controlled by him. An examination of the medals of Dario,
+Kourobelef, and Errington showed the same. Maître Delarue who had taken
+all four of them and was examining them minutely, held out his hand for
+Dorothy's medal.
+
+She had taken out the little leather purse which she had slipped into
+her bodice. She untied the strings and stood amazed. The purse was
+empty.
+
+She shook it, turned it inside out. Nothing.
+
+"It's gone.... It's gone," she said in a hushed voice.
+
+An astonished silence followed her declaration. Then the notary asked:
+
+"You haven't lost it by any chance?"
+
+"No," she said. "I can't have lost it. If I had, I should have lost the
+little bag at the same time."
+
+"But how do you explain it?" said the notary.
+
+Dario intervened a trifle dryly:
+
+"Mademoiselle has no need to explain. For you don't pretend...."
+
+"Of course none of us supposes that mademoiselle has come here without
+having the right," said the notary. "In the place of four medals there
+are five, that's all I meant to say."
+
+Dorothy said again in the most positive tones: "I have not lost it.
+From the moment it was missing----"
+
+She was on the point of saying:
+
+"From the moment it was missing from this purse it had been stolen from
+me."
+
+She did not finish that sentence. Her heart was wrung by a sudden
+anguish, as she suddenly grasped the full meaning of such an
+accusation; and the problem presented itself to her in all its
+simplicity and with its only possible and exact solution: "_The four
+pieces of gold are there. One of them has been stolen from me. Then one
+of these four men is a thief._"
+
+And this undeniable fact brought her abruptly to such a vision of the
+facts, to a certainty so unforeseen and so formidable that she needed
+almost super-human energy to restrain herself. It was needful that no
+one should be on their guard against her, before she had considered
+the matter and fully taken in the tragic aspect of the situation. She
+accepted therefore the notary's hypothesis and murmured:
+
+"After all ... yes ... that's it. You must be right, Maître Delarue,
+I've lost that medal.... But how? I can't think in what way I could
+have lost it ... at what moment."
+
+She spoke in a very low voice, an absent-minded voice. The parted
+curls showed her forehead furrowed by anxiety. Maître Delarue and the
+four strangers were exchanging futile phrases; not one of them seemed
+worth her consideration. Then they were silent. The silence lengthened.
+The lamps were switched off. The light from the little window was
+concentrated on Dorothy. She was very pale, so pale that she was aware
+of it and hid her face in her hands in order to prevent them from
+perceiving the effects of the emotions which were racking her.
+
+Violent emotions, which proceeded from that truth that she had had
+such difficulty in attaining and which was disengaging itself from the
+shadows. It was not by scraps that she was gathering up the revealing
+clues but in a mass so to speak. The clouds had been swept away. In
+front of her, before her closed eyes, she saw ... she saw.... Ah! What
+a terrifying fact!
+
+However she stubbornly kept herself silent and motionless, while to
+her mind there presented themselves in quick succession during the
+course of a few seconds all the questions and all the answers, all the
+arguments and all the proofs.
+
+She recalled the fact that the night before at the village of Périac
+the caravan had nearly been destroyed by fire. Who had started that
+fire? And with what motive? Might she not suppose that one of those
+unhoped-for helpers, who had appeared so suddenly in the very nick of
+time, had taken advantage of the confusion to slip into the caravan,
+ransack her sleeping birth, and open the little leather purse hanging
+from a nail.
+
+Possessor of the medal, the chief of the gang returned in haste to
+the ruins of Roche-Périac and disposed his men in that peninsula, the
+innermost recesses of which must be known to him, and in which he had
+everything arranged in view of the fateful day, the 12th of July,
+1921. Doubtless he had had a dress rehearsal with his confederate cast
+for the part of the sleeping Marquis. Final instructions. Promises
+of reward in the event of success. Menaces in the event of failure.
+And at noon he arrived quietly in front of the clock, like the other
+strangers, presented the medal, the only certificate of identity
+required, and was present at the reading of the will. Then came the
+ascent of the tower and the resurrection of the Marquis. In another
+instant she would have handed over the codicil to him; and he reached
+his goal. The great plot which d'Estreicher had been so long weaving
+attained its end. And how could she fail to observe that up to the very
+last minute, there had been in the working out of that plan, in the
+performance of unforeseen actions, necessitated by the chances, the
+same boldness, the same vigor, the same methodical decision? There are
+battles which are only won when the chief is on the battle-field.
+
+_He is here_, she thought, distracted. He has escaped from prison and
+_he is here_. His confederate was going to betray him and join us;
+he killed him. _He is here._ Rid of his beard and spectacles, his
+skull shaved, his arm in a sling, disguised as a Russian soldier, not
+speaking a word, changing his bearing, he was unrecognizable. But it
+is certainly d'Estreicher. Now he has his eyes fixed on me. He is
+hesitating. He is asking himself have I penetrated his disguise....
+Whether he can go on with the comedy ... or whether he should unmask
+and compel us, revolver in hand, to hand over the codicil, that is to
+say the diamonds.
+
+Dorothy did not know what to do. In her place a man of her character
+and temper would have settled the question by throwing himself on the
+enemy. But a woman?... Already her legs were failing her; she was
+in the grip of terror--of terror also for the three young men whom
+d'Estreicher could lay low with three shots.
+
+She withdrew her hands from her face. Without turning she was aware
+that they were waiting, _all four of them_. D'Estreicher was one of
+the group, his eyes fixed on her ... yes, fixed on her.... She felt
+the savage glare which followed her slightest movement and sought to
+discover her intentions.
+
+She slid a step towards the door. Her plan was to gain that door, bar
+the enemy's way, face him, and throw herself between him and the
+three young men. Blockaded against the walls of the room, with escape
+impossible, there were plenty of chances that he would be forced to
+yield to the will of three strong and resolute men.
+
+She moved yet another step, imperceptibly ... then another. Ten feet
+separated her from the door. She saw on her right its heavy mass,
+studded with nails.
+
+She said, as if the disappearance of the medal still filled her mind:
+
+"I must have lost it ... a day or two ago.... I had it on my knee.... I
+must have forgotten to put it back----"
+
+Suddenly she made her spring.
+
+Too late. At the very moment that she drew herself together,
+d'Estreicher, foreseeing it, leapt in front of the door, a revolver in
+either outstretched hand.
+
+This sudden act was masked by no single word. There was no need of
+words indeed for the three young men to grasp the fact that the
+murderer of the false Marquis stood before them. Instinctively they
+recoiled from the menace; then on the instant pulled themselves
+together, and ready for the counterstroke, they advanced.
+
+Dorothy stopped them at the moment that d'Estreicher was on the point
+of shooting. Drawn to her full height in front of them, she protected
+them, certain that the scoundrel would not pull the trigger. But he was
+aiming straight at her bosom; and the young men could not stir, while,
+his right arm outstretched, with his left hand still holding the other
+revolver, he felt for the lock.
+
+"Leave it to us, mademoiselle!" cried Webster, beside himself.
+
+"A single movement and he kills me," she said.
+
+The scoundrel did not utter a word, he opened the door behind him,
+flattened himself against the wall, then slipped quickly out.
+
+The three young men sprang forward like unleashed hounds--only to dash
+themselves against the obstacle of the heavy door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE KIDNAPING OF MONTFAUCON
+
+
+For a minute or two extreme confusion reigned in the room. Errington
+and Webster struggled furiously with the old lock. Almost past use, it
+worked badly from the inside. Exasperated and maddened at having let
+the enemy escape, they got in one another's way and their efforts only
+ended in their jamming it.
+
+Marco Dario raged at them.
+
+"Get on! Get on! What are you messing about like that for?... It's
+d'Estreicher, isn't it, mademoiselle? The man you spoke of? He murdered
+his confederate?... He stole the medal from you? Holy Virgin, hurry up,
+you two!"
+
+Dorothy tried to reason with them:
+
+"Wait, I implore you. Think. We must work together.... It's madness to
+act at random!"
+
+But they did not listen to her; and, when the door did open, they
+rushed down the staircase, while she called out to them:
+
+"I implore you.... They're below.... They're watching you."
+
+Then a whistle, strident and prolonged, rent the air. It came from
+without.
+
+She ran to the window. Nothing was to be seen from it, and in despair
+she asked herself:
+
+"What does that mean? He isn't calling his confederates. They're with
+him now. Then, why that signal?"
+
+She was about to go down in her turn when she found herself caught
+by her petticoat. From the beginning of the scene, in front of
+d'Estreicher and his leveled revolvers, Maître Delarue had sunk down in
+the darkest corner, and now he was imploring her, almost on his knees:
+
+"You aren't going to abandon me--with the corpse?... And then that
+scoundrel might come back!... His confederates!"
+
+She pulled him to his feet.
+
+"No time to lose.... We must go to the help of our friends...."
+
+"Go to their help? Stout young fellows like them?" he cried indignantly.
+
+Dorothy drew him along by the hand as one leads a child. They went,
+anyhow, half-way down the staircase. Maître Delarue was sniveling,
+Dorothy muttering:
+
+"Why that signal? To whom was it given? And what are they to do?"
+
+An idea little by little took hold of her. She thought of the four
+children who had remained at the inn, of Saint-Quentin, of Montfaucon.
+And this idea so tormented her that three parts of the way down the
+staircase she stopped at the hole which pierced the wall, which she had
+noticed as they came up. After all what could an old man and a young
+girl do to help three young men?
+
+"What is it?" stammered the notary. "Can one hear the f-f-f-fight?"
+
+"One can't hear anything," she said bending down.
+
+She squeezed herself into the narrow passage and crawled to the
+opening. Then, having looked more carefully than she had done in the
+afternoon, she perceived on her right, on the cornice, a good-sized
+bundle, thrust down into a crack, screened in front by wild plants. It
+was a rope-ladder. One of its ends was fastened to a hook driven into
+the wall.
+
+"Excellent," she said. "It's evident that on occasions d'Estreicher
+uses this exit. In the event of danger it's an easy way to safety,
+since this side of the tower is opposite the entrance in the interior."
+
+The way to safety was less easy for Maître Delarue, who began by
+groaning.
+
+"Never in my life! Get down that way?"
+
+"Nonsense!" she said. "It isn't thirty-five feet--only two stories."
+
+"As well commit suicide."
+
+"Do you prefer a knife stuck in you? Remember that d'Estreicher has
+only one aim--the codicil. And you have it."
+
+Terrified, Maître Delarue made up his mind to it, on condition that
+Dorothy descended first to make sure that the ladder was in a good
+state and that no rungs were missing.
+
+Dorothy did not bother about rungs. She gripped the ladder between
+her legs and slid from the top to bottom. Then catching hold of the
+two ropes she kept them as stiff as she could. The operation was
+nevertheless painful and lengthy; and Maître Delarue expended so much
+courage on it that he nearly fainted at the lower rungs. The sweat
+trickled down his face and over his hands in great drops.
+
+With a few words Dorothy restored his courage.
+
+"You can hear them.... Don't you hear them?"
+
+Maître Delarue could hear nothing. But he set out at a run, breathless
+from the start, mumbling:
+
+"They're after us!... In a minute they'll attack us!"
+
+A side-path led them through thick brushwood to the main path, which
+connected the keep with the clearing in which the solitary oak stood.
+No one behind them.
+
+More confident, Maître Delarue threatened:
+
+"The blackguards! At the first house I send a messenger to the nearest
+police station.... Then I mobilize the peasants--with guns, forks and
+anything handy. And you, what's your plan?"
+
+"I haven't one."
+
+"What? No plan? You?"
+
+"No," she said. "I've acted rather at random, I'm afraid."
+
+"Ah, you see clearly----"
+
+"I'm not afraid for myself."
+
+"For whom?"
+
+"For my children."
+
+Maître Delarue exclaimed:
+
+"Gracious! You've got children?"
+
+"I left them at the inn."
+
+"But how many have you?"
+
+"Four."
+
+The notary was flabbergasted.
+
+"Four children! Then you're married?"
+
+"No," admitted Dorothy, not perceiving the good man's mistake. "But I
+wish to secure their safety. Fortunately Saint-Quentin is not an idiot."
+
+"Saint-Quentin?"
+
+"Yes, the eldest of the urchins ... an artful lad, cunning as a monkey."
+
+Maître Delarue gave up trying to understand. Besides, nothing was of
+any importance to him but the prospect of being overtaken before he had
+passed that narrow, devilish causeway.
+
+"Let's run! Let's run!" he said, for all that his shortness of breath
+compelled him to go slower every minute. "And then catch hold,
+mademoiselle! Here's the second envelope! There's no reason why I
+should carry such a dangerous paper on me; and after all it's no
+business of mine."
+
+She took the envelope and put it in her purse just as they came into
+the court of the clock. Maître Delarue who could move only with great
+difficulty, uttered a cry of joy on perceiving his donkey in the act of
+browsing in the most peaceful fashion in the world, at some distance
+from the motor-cycle and the two horses.
+
+"You'll excuse me, mademoiselle."
+
+He scrambled on to his mount. The donkey began by backing; and it threw
+the good man into such a state of exasperation that he belabored its
+head and belly with thumps and kicks. The donkey suddenly gave in and
+went off like an arrow.
+
+Dorothy called out to him:
+
+"Look out, Maître Delarue! The confederates have been warned!"
+
+The notary heard the words, on the instant leaned back in the saddle,
+and tugged desperately at the reins. But nothing could stop the brute.
+When Dorothy got clear of the ruins of the outer wall, she saw him a
+long way off, still going hard.
+
+Then she began to run again, in a growing disquiet: d'Estreicher's
+whistle had been meant for confederates posted on the mainland at the
+entrance to the peninsula the access to which they were guarding. She
+said to herself:
+
+"In any case if I don't get through, Maître Delarue will; and it is
+clear that Saint-Quentin will be warned and be on his guard."
+
+The sea, very blue and very calm, had ebbed to right and left, forming
+two bays on the other side of which rose the cliff of the coast. The
+path down the gorge was distinguishable by the dark cutting she saw in
+the mass of trees which covered the plateau. Here and there it rose to
+some height. Twice she caught sight of the flying notary.
+
+But as in her turn she reached the line of the trees, a report rang out
+ahead, and a little smoke rose in the air above what must have been the
+steepest point in the path.
+
+There came cries and shouts for help; then silence. Dorothy doubled
+her speed in order to help Maître Delarue; undoubtedly he had been
+attacked. But after running for some minutes at such a pace that no
+sound could have reached her ears, she had barely time to spring out of
+the path to get out of the way of the furiously galloping donkey whose
+rider was crouching forward on its back with his arms knotted round its
+neck. Maître Delarue, since his head was glued to the further side of
+its neck, did not even see her.
+
+More anxious than ever, since it was clear that Saint-Quentin and his
+comrades would not be warned if she did not succeed in getting through
+the path down the gorge and over the causeway, she started to run
+again. Then she caught sight of the figures of two men on one of the
+high points of the path in front, coming towards her. They were the
+confederates. They had barred the road to Maître Delarue and were now
+acting after the manner of beaters.
+
+She flung herself into the bushes, dropped into a hollow full of dead
+leaves, and covered herself with them.
+
+The confederates passed her in silence. She heard the dull noise
+of their hobnailed boots, which went further and further off in
+the direction of the ruins; and when she raised herself, they had
+disappeared.
+
+Forthwith, having no further obstacle before her, Dorothy made her
+way down the path, so correctly described by the board as bad going,
+and came to the causeway which joined the peninsula to the mainland,
+observed that the Baron Davernoie and his old flame were no longer on
+the edge of the water, mounted the slope, and hurried towards the inn.
+A little way from it she called out:
+
+"Saint-Quentin!... Saint-Quentin."
+
+Getting no answer, her forebodings re-doubled. She passed in front of
+the house and saw no one. She crossed the orchard, went to the barn,
+and jerked open the caravan door. There once more--no one. Nothing but
+the children's bags and the usual things.
+
+"Saint-Quentin!... Saint-Quentin!" she cried again.
+
+She returned to the house and this time she entered.
+
+The little room which formed the café and in which stood the zinc
+counter, was empty. Over-turned benches and chairs lay about the floor.
+On a table stood three glasses, half full, and a bottle.
+
+Dorothy called out:
+
+"Madame Amoureux!"
+
+She thought she heard a groan and went to the counter. Behind it,
+doubled up, her legs and arms bound, the landlady was lying with a
+handkerchief covering her mouth.
+
+"Hurt?" asked Dorothy when she had freed her from the gag.
+
+"No ... no ..."
+
+"And the children?" said the young girl in a shaky voice.
+
+"They're all right."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"Down on the beach, I think."
+
+"All of them?"
+
+"All but one, the smallest."
+
+"Montfaucon."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good heavens! What has become of him?"
+
+"They've carried him off."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Two men--two men who came in and asked for a drink. The little boy
+was playing near us. The others must have been amusing themselves at
+the bottom of the orchards behind the barns. We couldn't hear them.
+And then of a sudden one of the men, with whom I was drinking a glass
+of wine, seized me by the throat while the second caught hold of the
+little boy.
+
+"'Not a word,' said they. 'If you speak, we'll squeeze your throttle.
+Where are the other nippers?'
+
+"It occurred to me to say that they were down on the beach fishing
+among the rocks.
+
+"'It's true, that, is it, old 'un?' said they. 'If you're lying, you're
+taking a great risk. Swear it.'
+
+"'I swear it.'
+
+"'And you too, nipper, answer. Where are your brothers and sisters?'
+
+"I was terribly afraid, madam. The little boy was crying. But all the
+same he said, and well he knew it wasn't true:
+
+"'They're playing down below--among the rocks.'
+
+"Then they tied me up and said:
+
+"'You stay there. We're coming back. And if we don't find you here,
+look out, mother.'
+
+"And off they went, taking the little boy with them. One of them had
+rolled him up in his jacket."
+
+Dorothy, very pale, was considering. She asked:
+
+"And Saint-Quentin?"
+
+"He came in about half an hour afterwards to look for Montfaucon. He
+ended by finding me. I told him the story: 'Ah,' said he, the tears
+in his eyes. 'Whatever will mummy say?' He wanted to cut my ropes. I
+refused. I was afraid the men would come back. Then he took down an
+old broken gun from above the chimney-piece, a chassepot which dates
+from the time of my dead father, without any cartridges, and went off
+with the two others."
+
+"But where was he going?" said Dorothy.
+
+"Goodness, I don't know. I gathered they were going along the seashore."
+
+"And how long ago is that?"
+
+"A good hour at least."
+
+"A good hour," murmured Dorothy.
+
+This time the landlady did not refuse to have her bonds untied. As
+soon as she was free she said to Dorothy who wished to dispatch her to
+Périac in search of help:
+
+"To Périac? Six miles! But, my poor lady, I haven't the strength. The
+best thing you can do is to get there yourself as fast as your legs
+will carry you."
+
+Dorothy did not even consider this counsel. She was in a hurry to
+return to the ruins and there join battle with the enemy. She set off
+again at a run.
+
+So the attack she had foreseen had indeed developed; but an hour
+earlier--that is to say before the signal was given--and the two men
+were forthwith posted on the path to the causeway with the mission to
+establish a barrage, then at the whistle to fall back on the scene of
+operations.
+
+Only too well did Dorothy understand the motive of this kidnaping. In
+the battle they were fighting it was not only a matter of stealing
+the diamonds; there was another victory for which d'Estreicher was
+striving with quite as much intensity and ruthlessness. Now Montfaucon,
+in his hands, was the pledge of victory. Cost what it might, whatever
+happened, admitting even that the luck turned against him, Dorothy must
+surrender at discretion and bend the knee. To save Montfaucon from
+certain death it was beyond doubt that she would not recoil from any
+act, from any trial.
+
+"Oh, the monster!" she murmured. "He is not mistaken. He holds me by
+what I hold dearest!"
+
+Several times she noticed, across the path, groups of small pebbles
+arranged in circles, or cut-off twigs, which were to her so much
+information furnished by Saint-Quentin. From them she learnt that the
+children instead of keeping straight along the path to the gorge,
+had turned off to the left and gone round the marsh to the seashore
+so betaking themselves to the shelter of the rocks. But she paid no
+attention to this maneuver, for she could only think of the danger
+which threatened Montfaucon and had no other aim than to get to his
+kidnapers.
+
+She took her way to the peninsula, mounted the gorge, where she met
+no one, and reached the plateau. As she did so she heard the sound of
+a second report. Some one had fired in the ruins. At whom? At Maître
+Delarue? At one of the three young men?
+
+"Ah," she said to herself anxiously. "Perhaps I ought never to have
+left them, those three friends of mine. All four of us together, we
+could have defended ourselves. Instead of that, we are far from one
+another, helpless."
+
+What astonished her when she had crossed the outer wall, was the
+infinite silence into which she seemed to herself to enter. The field
+of battle was not large--a couple of miles long, at the most, and
+a few hundred yards across; and yet in this restricted space, in
+which perhaps nine or ten men were pitted against her, not a sound.
+Not a mutter of human speech. Nothing but the twittering of birds or
+the rustling of leaves, which fell gently, cautiously, as if things
+themselves were conspiring not to break the silence.
+
+"It's terrible," murmured Dorothy. "What is the meaning of it? Am I to
+believe that all is over? Or rather that nothing has begun, that the
+adversaries are watching one another before coming to blows--on the one
+side Errington, Webster, and Dario, on the other d'Estreicher and his
+confederates?"
+
+She advanced quickly into the court of the clock. There she saw still,
+near the two tied-up horses, the donkey, eating the leaves of a shrub,
+his bridle dragging on the ground, his saddle quite straight on his
+back, his coat shining with sweat.
+
+What has become of Maître Delarue? Had he been able to rejoin the group
+of the foreigners? Had his mount thrown him and delivered him into the
+power of the enemy?
+
+Thus at every moment questions presented themselves which it was
+impossible to answer. The shadow was thickening.
+
+Dorothy was not timid. During the war, in the ambulances in the first
+line, she had grown used more quickly than many men to the bursting
+of shells; and the hour of bombardment did not shake her nerves. But
+mistress of her nerves as she was, on the other hand, she was more
+susceptible than a man of less courage to the influence of everything
+unknown, of everything that is unseen and unheard. Her extreme
+sensitiveness gave her a keen sense of danger; and at that moment she
+had the deepest impression of danger.
+
+She went on however. An invincible force drove her on till she should
+find her friends and Montfaucon should be freed. She hurried to the
+avenue of great trees, crossed the clearing of the old solitary oak,
+and mounted the rising ground on which rose Cocquesin tower.
+
+More and more the solitude and the silence troubled her. The profound
+silence. A solitude so abnormal that Dorothy reached the point of
+believing herself to be no longer alone. Some one was watching. Men
+were following her as she went. It seemed to her that she was exposed
+to all menaces, that the barrels of guns were leveled at her, that she
+was about to fall into the trap which her enemy had laid.
+
+The impression was so strong that Dorothy, who knew her nature and the
+correctness of her presentiments, reckoned it a certainty resting on
+irrefutable proofs. She even knew where the ambush was awaiting her.
+They had guessed that her instinct, her calculations, that all the
+circumstances of the drama, would bring her back to the tower; and
+there they were awaiting her.
+
+She stopped at the entrance of the vault. On the opposite side, above
+the steps which descended into the immense nave of the donjon, her
+enemies must be posted. Let her make a few more steps and they would
+capture her.
+
+She stood quite still. She no longer doubted that Maître Delarue
+had been taken, and that, yielding to threats, he had disclosed the
+fact that the second envelope was in her hands, that second envelope
+without which the diamonds of the Marquis de Beaugreval would never be
+discovered.
+
+A minute or two passed. No single indication allowed her to believe in
+the actual presence of the enemies she imagined. But the mere logic of
+the events demanded that they should be there. She must then act as if
+they were there.
+
+By one of those imperceptible movements which seemed to have no object,
+without letting anything in her attitude awake the suspicion in her
+invisible enemies that she was accomplishing a definite action, she
+managed to open her purse and extract the envelope. She crumpled it up
+and reduced it to a tiny ball.
+
+Then, letting her arm hang down, she went some steps into the vault.
+
+Behind her, violently, with a loud crash, something fell down. It was
+the old feudal portcullis, which fell from above, came grating down
+its grooves, and blocked the entrance with its heavy trellis-work of
+massive wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE LAST QUARTER OF A MINUTE
+
+
+Dorothy did not turn round. She was a prisoner.
+
+"I made no mistake," she thought. "They are the masters of the field of
+battle. But what has become of the others?"
+
+On her right opened the entrance to the staircase which ascended the
+tower. Perhaps she might have fled up it and availed herself once more
+of the rope-ladder? But what use would it be? Did not the kidnaping of
+Montfaucon oblige her to fight to the end, in spite of the hopelessness
+of the conflict? She must throw herself into the arena, among the
+ferocious beasts.
+
+She went on. Though alone and without friends, she found herself quite
+cool. As she went, she let the little ball of paper roll down her
+skirt. It rolled along the floor and was lost among the pebbles and
+dust which covered it.
+
+As she came to the end of the vault, two arms shot out and two men
+covered her with their revolvers.
+
+"Don't move!"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+One of them repeated harshly:
+
+"Don't move, or I shoot."
+
+She looked at them. They were two subordinates, poisonous-looking
+rogues, dressed as sailors. She thought she recognized in them the two
+individuals who had accompanied d'Estreicher to the Manor. She said to
+them:
+
+"The child? What have you done with the child? It was you who carried
+him off, wasn't it?"
+
+With a sudden movement they seized her arms; and while one kept her
+covered with his revolver, the other set about the task of searching
+her. But an imperious voice checked them:
+
+"Stop that. I'll do it myself."
+
+A third personage whom Dorothy had not perceived, stepped out from the
+wall where enormous roots of ivy had concealed him.... D'Estreicher!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For all that he was still rigged out in his disguise of a Russian
+soldier, he was no longer the same man. Again she found him the
+d'Estreicher of Roborey and Hillocks Manor. He had resumed his arrogant
+air and his wicked expression, and did not try to conceal his slight
+limp. Now that his hair and beard were shaved off, she observed the
+flatness of the back of his head and the apelike development of his jaw.
+
+He stood a long while without speaking. Was he tasting the joy of
+triumph? One would have said rather that he felt a certain discomfort
+in the presence of his victim, or at least that he was hesitating in
+his attack. He walked up and down, his hands behind his back, stopped,
+then walked up and down again.
+
+He asked her:
+
+"Have you any weapon?"
+
+"None," she declared.
+
+He told his two henchmen to go back to their comrades; then once more
+he began to walk up and down.
+
+Dorothy studied him carefully, searching his face for something human
+of which she might take hold. But there was nothing but vulgarity,
+baseness, and cunning in it. She had only herself to rely on. In
+the lists formed by the ruins of the great tower, surrounded by a
+band of scoundrels, commanded by the most implacable of chiefs,
+watched, coveted, helpless, she had as her unique resource, her
+subtle intelligence. It was infinitely little, and it was much, since
+already once before, within the walls of Hillocks Manor, placed in the
+same situation, and facing the same enemy, she had conquered. It was
+much because this enemy distrusted himself and so lost some of his
+advantages.
+
+For the moment he believed himself sure of success; and his attitude
+displayed all the insolence of one who believes he has nothing to fear.
+
+Their eyes met. He began:
+
+"How pretty she is, the little devil! A morsel fit for a king. It's
+a pity she detests me." And, drawing nearer, he added: "It really is
+detestation, Dorothy?"
+
+She recoiled a step. He frowned.
+
+"Yes: I know ... your father.... Bah! Your father was very ill.... He
+would have died in any case. So it wasn't really I who killed him."
+
+She said:
+
+"And your confederate ... a little while ago?... The false Marquis."
+
+He sneered:
+
+"Don't let's talk about that, I beg you. A measly fellow not worth a
+single regret ... so cowardly and so ungrateful that, finding himself
+unmasked, he was ready to betray me--as you guessed. For nothing
+escapes you, Dorothy, and on my word it has been child's play to you
+to solve every problem. I who have been working with the narrative of
+the servant Geoffrey, whose descendant I believe myself to be, have
+spent years making out what you have unraveled in a few minutes. Not a
+moment's hesitation. Not a mistake. You have spotted my game just as if
+you held my cards in your hand. And what astonishes me most, Dorothy,
+is your coolness at this moment. For at last, my dear, you know where
+we stand."
+
+"I know."
+
+"And you're not on your knees!" he exclaimed. "Truly I was looking to
+hear your supplications.... I saw you at my feet, dragging yourself
+along the ground. Instead of that, eyes which meet mine squarely, an
+attitude of provocation."
+
+"I am not provoking you. I am listening."
+
+"Then let us regulate our accounts. There are two. The account
+Dorothy." He smiled. "We won't talk about that yet. That comes last.
+And the account diamonds. At the present moment I should have been
+the possessor of them if you had not intercepted the indispensable
+document. Enough of obstacles! Maître Delarue has confessed, with a
+revolver at his temple, that he gave you back the second envelope. Give
+it to me."
+
+"If I don't?"
+
+"All the worse for Montfaucon."
+
+Dorothy did not even tremble. Assuredly she saw clearly the situation
+in which she found herself and understood that the duel she was
+fighting was much more serious than the first, at the Manor. There she
+expected help. Here nothing. No matter! With such a personage, there
+must be no weakening. The victor would be the one who should preserve
+an unshakable coolness, and should end, at some moment or other, by
+dominating the adversary.
+
+"To hold out to the end!" she thought stubbornly. "... To the end....
+And not till the last quarter of an hour ... but till the last quarter
+of the last minute."
+
+She stared at her enemy and said in a tone of command:
+
+"There's a child here who is suffering. First of all I order you to
+hand him over to me."
+
+"Oh, indeed," he said ironically. "Mademoiselle orders. And by what
+right?"
+
+"By the right given me by the certainty that before long you will be
+forced to obey me."
+
+"By whom, my liege lady?"
+
+"By my three friends, Errington, Webster, and Dario."
+
+"Of course ... of course ..." he said. "Those gentlemen are stout young
+fellows accustomed to field sports, and you have every right to count
+on those intrepid champions."
+
+He beckoned to Dorothy to follow him and crossed the arena, covered
+with stones, which formed the interior of the donjon. To the right of
+a breach, which formed the opposite entrance, and behind a curtain of
+ivy stretched over the bushes, were small vaulted chambers, which must
+have been ancient prisons. One still saw rings affixed to the stones at
+their base.
+
+In three of these cells, Errington, Webster, and Dario were stretched
+out, firmly gagged, bound with ropes, which reduced them to the
+condition of mummies and fastened them to the rings. Three men, armed
+with rifles, guarded them. In a fourth cell was the corpse of the false
+Marquis. The fifth contained Maître Delarue and Montfaucon. The child
+was rolled up in a rug. Above a strip of stuff, which hid the lower
+part of his face, his poor eyes, full of tears, smiled at Dorothy.
+
+She crushed down the sob which rose to her throat. She uttered no
+word of protest or reproach. One would have said, indeed, that all
+these were secondary incidents which could not affect the issue of the
+conflict.
+
+"Well?" chuckled d'Estreicher. "What do you think of your defenders?
+And what do you think of the forces at my disposal? Three comrades
+to guard the prisoners, two others posted as sentinels to watch the
+approaches. I can be easy in mind, what? But why, my beauty, did you
+leave them? You were the bond of union. Left to themselves, they let
+themselves be gathered in stupidly, one by one, at the exit from the
+donjon. It was no use any one of them struggling ... it didn't work.
+Not one of my men got a shadow of a scratch. I had more trouble with
+M. Delarue. I had to oblige him with a bullet through his hat before
+he'd come down from a tree in which he had perched himself. As
+for Montfaucon, an angel of sweetness! Consequently, you see, your
+champions being out of it, you can only count on yourself; and that
+isn't much."
+
+"It's enough," she said. "The secret of the diamonds depends on me and
+on me only. So you're going to untie the bonds of my friends and set
+the child free."
+
+"In return for what?"
+
+"In return for that I will give you the envelope of the Marquis de
+Beaugreval."
+
+He looked at her.
+
+"Hang it, it's an attractive offer. Then you'd give up the diamonds?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yourself and in the name of your friends?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Give me the envelope."
+
+"Cut the ropes."
+
+An access of rage seized him:
+
+"Give me the envelope. After all I'm master. Give it me!"
+
+"No," she said.
+
+"I will have it.... I will have that envelope!"
+
+"No," she said, yet more forcibly.
+
+He snatched the purse pinned to her bodice, for the top of it showed
+above its edge.
+
+"Ah!" he said in a tone of victory. "The notary told me that you had
+put it in this ... as you did the gold medal. At last I am going to
+learn!"
+
+But there was nothing in the purse. Disappointed, mad with rage, he
+shook his fist in Dorothy's face, shouting:
+
+"That was the game, was it? Your friends set free, I was done. The
+envelope, at once!"
+
+"I have torn it up," she declared.
+
+"You lie! One doesn't tear up a thing like that! One doesn't destroy a
+secret like that!"
+
+She repeated:
+
+"I tore it up; but I read it first. Cut the bonds of my friends; and I
+reveal the secret to you."
+
+He howled:
+
+"You lie! You lie! The envelope at once.... Ah, if you think that you
+can go on laughing at me for very long! I've had enough of it! For the
+last time, the envelope!"
+
+"No," she said.
+
+He rushed towards the cell in which the child was lying, tore the cloak
+off him, seized his hair with one hand and began to swing him like a
+bundle he was going to throw to a distance.
+
+"The envelope! Or I smash his head against the wall!" he shouted at
+Dorothy.
+
+He was a loathsome sight. His features were distorted by a horrible
+ferocity. His confederates gazed at him, laughing.
+
+Dorothy raised her hand in token of acceptance.
+
+He set the child on the ground and came back to her. He was covered
+with sweat.
+
+"The envelope," he said once more.
+
+She explained:
+
+"In the entrance vault ... in this end of it, opening into this place
+... a little ball on the ground, among the pebbles."
+
+He called one of his confederates and repeated the information to him.
+The man went off, running.
+
+"It was time!" muttered the ruffian, wiping the sweat from his
+brow. "Look you, you shouldn't provoke me. And then why that air of
+defiance?" he added, as if Dorothy's coolness shamed him. "Damn it
+all! Lower your eyes! Am I not master here? Master of your friends ...
+master of you ... yes, of you."
+
+He repeated this word two or three times, almost to himself and with a
+look which made Dorothy uneasy. But, hearing his confederate, he turned
+and called to him sharply.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Here it is."
+
+"You're sure? You're sure? Ah, here we are. This is the real victory."
+
+He unfolded the crumpled envelope and held it in his hands, turning it
+slowly over and over as if it were the most precious of possessions. It
+had not been opened; the seals were intact; no one then knew the great
+secret which he was going to learn.
+
+He could not prevent himself from saying aloud:
+
+"No one ... no one but me...."
+
+He unsealed the envelope. It contained a sheet of paper folded in two,
+on which only three or four lines were written.
+
+He read those lines and seemed greatly astonished.
+
+"Oh, it's devilish clever! And I understand why I found nothing,
+nor any of those who have searched. The old chap was right: the
+hiding-place is undiscoverable."
+
+He began to walk up and down, in silence, like a man who is weighing
+alternative actions. Then, returning to the cells, he said to the
+three guards, his finger pointing to the prisoners:
+
+"No means of their escaping, is there? The ropes are strong. Then march
+along to the boat and get ready to start."
+
+His confederates hesitated.
+
+"Well, what's the matter with you?" said their leader.
+
+One of them risked saying:
+
+"But ... the treasure?"
+
+Dorothy observed their hostile attitude. Doubtless they distrusted one
+another; and the idea of leaving before the division of the spoil,
+appeared to endanger their interests.
+
+"The treasure?" he cried. "What about it? Do you suppose I'm going to
+swallow it. You'll get the share you've been promised. I've sworn it.
+And a big share too."
+
+He bullied all three of them, impatient to be alone.
+
+"Hurry up! Ah, I was forgetting.... Call your two comrades on duty; and
+all five of you carry away the false Marquis. We'll throw him into the
+sea. In that way he'll neither be seen nor known. Get on."
+
+His confederates discussed the matter for a moment. But their leader
+maintained his ascendancy over them, and grumbling, with lowering
+faces, they obeyed his orders.
+
+"Six o'clock," he said. "At seven I'll be with you so that we can get
+off soon after dark. And have everything ready, mind you! Set the cabin
+in order.... Perhaps there'll be an additional passenger."
+
+Once more he looked at Dorothy and studied her face while his
+confederates moved off.
+
+"A passenger, or rather a lady passenger. What, Dorothy?"
+
+Always impassive, she did not answer. But her suffering became keener
+and keener. The terrible moment drew near.
+
+He still held the envelope and the letter of the Marquis in his hand.
+From his pocket he drew a lighter and lit it to read the instructions
+once more.
+
+"Admirable!" he murmured almost purring with satisfaction. "A
+first-class idea!... As well search at the bottom of hell. Ah, that
+Marquis! What a man!"
+
+He twisted the paper into a long spill and put its end in the flame.
+The paper caught fire. At its flame he lit a cigarette with an
+affectation of nonchalance, and turning toward the prisoners, he
+waited, with hand outstretched, till there remained of the document
+only a little ash which was scattered by the breath of the breeze.
+
+"Look Webster, look Errington and Dario. This is all you'll ever see
+of the secret of your ancestor ... a little ash.... It's gone. Confess
+that you haven't been very smart. You are three stout fellows and you
+haven't been able either to keep the treasure which was waiting for
+you, nor to defend the pretty cousin whom you admired, open-mouthed.
+Hang it! There were six of us in the little room in the tower; and it
+would have been enough for one of you to grip hold of my collar.... I
+was damned uncomfortable. Instead of that, what a cropper you came.
+All the worse for you ... and all the worse for her!"
+
+He showed them his revolver.
+
+"I shan't need to use this. What?" he said. "You must have noticed that
+at the slightest movement the cords grow tighter round your throats. If
+you insist ... it's strangulation pure and simple. A word to the wise.
+Now, cousin Dorothy, I'm at your service. Follow me. We're going to
+perform the impossible in our attempt to come to an understanding."
+
+All resistance was futile. She went with him to the other side of the
+tower across an accumulation of ruins, to a chamber of which there only
+remained the walls, pierced with loop-holes, which he said was the
+ancient guardroom.
+
+"We shall be able to talk comfortably here. Your suitors will be able
+neither to see nor hear us. The solitude is absolute. Look here's a
+grassy bank. Please sit down."
+
+She crossed her arms and remained standing, her head straight. He
+waited, murmured: "As you like"; then, taking the seat he had offered
+her, he said:
+
+"This is our third interview, Dorothy. The first time, on the terrace
+of Roborey, you refused my offers, which was to be expected. You were
+ignorant of the exact value of my information; and all I could seem
+to you was a rather odd and disreputable person, against who you were
+burning to make war. A very noble sentiment which imposed on the
+Chagny cousins, but which did not deceive me, since I knew all about
+the theft of the earrings. In reality you had only one object: to get
+rid, in view of the great windfall you hoped for, of the most dangerous
+competitor. And the chief proof of that is that immediately after
+having denounced me you hurried off to Hillocks Manor, where you would
+probably find the solution of the riddle, and where I was again brought
+up short by your intrigues. To turn young Davernoie's head and sneak
+the medal, such was the task you undertook, and I admiringly confess
+carried it out from beginning to end. Only ... only ... d'Estreicher
+is not the kind of man to be disposed of so easily. Escape, that sham
+fire, the recovery of the medal, the capture of the codicil, in short
+complete redress. At the present moment the four diamonds belong to
+me. Whether I take possession of them to-morrow, or in a week, or in a
+year, is of no consequence. They are mine. Dozens of people, hundreds
+perhaps, have been vainly searching for them for two centuries;
+there is no reason why others should find them now. Behold me then
+exceedingly rich ... millions and millions. Wealth like that permits
+one to become honest ... which is my intention ... if always Dorothy
+consents to be the passenger of whom I told my men. One word in answer.
+Is it yes? Is it no?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I knew what to expect," he said. "All the same I wished to make the
+test ... before having recourse to extreme measures."
+
+He awaited the effect of this threat. Dorothy did not stir.
+
+"How calm you are!" he said in a tone in which there was a note of
+disquiet. "However you understand the situation exactly?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"We're alone. I have as pledges, as means of acting on you, the life of
+Montfaucon and the lives of these three bound men. Then how comes it
+that you are so calm?"
+
+She said clearly and positively:
+
+"I am calm because I know you are lost."
+
+"Come, come," he said laughing.
+
+"Irretrievably lost."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Just now, at the inn, after having learnt about the kidnaping of
+Montfaucon, I sent my three other boys to the nearest farms to bring
+all the peasants they met."
+
+He sneered:
+
+"By the time they've got together a troop of peasants, I shall be a
+long way off."
+
+"They are nearly here. I'm certain of it."
+
+"Too late, my pretty dear. If I'd had the slightest doubt, I'd have had
+you carried off by my men."
+
+"By your men? No...."
+
+"What is there to prevent it?"
+
+"You are afraid of them, in spite of your airs of wild-beast tamer.
+They're asking themselves whether you didn't stay here to take
+advantage of the secret you have stolen and get hold of the diamonds.
+They would find an ally in me. You would not dare to take the risk."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then that's why I am calm."
+
+He shook his head and in a grating voice:
+
+"A lie, little one. Play-acting. You are paler than the dead, for you
+know exactly where you stand. Whether I am tracked here in an hour,
+or whether my men end by betraying me, makes little difference. What
+does matter, to you, to me, is not what happens in an hour, but what
+is going to happen now. And you have no doubts about what is going to
+happen, have you?"
+
+He rose and standing over her, studied her with a menacing bitterness:
+
+"From the first minute I was caught like an imbecile! Rope-dancer,
+acrobat, princess, thief, mountebank, there is something in you which
+overwhelms me. I have always despised women ... not one has troubled
+me in my life. You, you attract me while you frighten me. Love? No.
+Hate.... Or rather a disease.... A poison which burns me and of which I
+must rid myself, Dorothy."
+
+He was very close to her, his eyes hard and full of fever. His hands
+hovered about the young girl's shoulders, ready to throw her down. To
+avoid their grasp she had to draw back towards the wall. He said in a
+very low, breathless voice:
+
+"Stop laughing, Dorothy! I've had enough of your gypsy spells. The
+taste of your lips, that's the potion that's going to heal me.
+Afterwards I shall be able to fly and never see you again. But
+afterwards only. Do you understand?"
+
+He set his two hands on her shoulders so roughly that she tottered.
+However, she continued to defy him with her attitude wholly
+contemptuous. Her will was strained to prevent him from getting once
+more the impression that she could tremble in the depths of her being
+and grow weak.
+
+"Do you understand?... Do you understand?" the man stuttered, hammering
+her arms and neck. "Do you understand that nothing can stop it? Help is
+impossible. It's the penalty of defeat. To-day I avenge myself ... and
+at the same time I free myself from you.... When we are separated, I
+shall be able to say to myself: 'Yes, she hurt me, but I do not regret
+it. The dénouement of the adventure effaces everything.'"
+
+He leant more and more heavily on the young girl's shoulders, and said
+to her with sarcastic joy:
+
+"Your eyes are troubled, Dorothy! What a pleasure to see that! There is
+fear in your eyes--fear.... How beautiful they are, Dorothy! This is
+indeed the reward of victory--just a look like that, which is full of
+fear--fear of me. That is worth more than anything. Dorothy, Dorothy, I
+love you.... Forget you? What folly! If I wish to kiss your lips, it is
+that I may love you even more ... and that you may love me ... that you
+may follow me like a slave and like the mistress of my heart."
+
+She touched the wall. The man tried to draw her to him. She made an
+effort to free herself.
+
+"Ah!" he cried in a sudden fury, mauling her. "No resistance, my dear.
+Give me your lips, at once, do you hear! If not, it's Montfaucon who'll
+pay. Do you want me to swing him round again as I did just now? Come,
+obey, or I'll certainly cut across to his cell; and so much the worse
+for the brat's head!"
+
+Dorothy was at the end of her forces. Her legs were bending. All her
+being shuddered with horror at this contact with the ruffian; and at
+the same time she trembled to repulse him, so great was her fear lest
+he should at once fling himself on the child.
+
+Her stiff arms began to bend. The man re-doubled his efforts to force
+her to her knees. It was all over. He was nearly at his goal. But at
+that moment the most unexpected sight caught her eye. Behind him, a few
+feet away, something was moving, something which passed through the
+opposite wall. It was the barrel of a rifle leveled at him through the
+loop-hole slit.
+
+On the instant she remembered that Saint-Quentin had carried away from
+the inn an old and useless rifle without cartridges!
+
+She did not make a sign which could draw d'Estreicher's attention to
+it. She understood Saint-Quentin's maneuver. The boy threatened, but
+he could only threaten. It was for her to contrive the method by which
+that menace should as soon as d'Estreicher saw it directed against him,
+have its full effect. It was certain that d'Estreicher would only need
+a moment to perceive, as Dorothy herself perceived, the rust and the
+deplorable condition of the weapon, as harmless as a child's gun.
+
+Quite clearly Dorothy perceived what she had to: to pull herself
+together, to face the enemy boldly, and to confuse him, were it only
+for a few seconds, as she had already succeeded in upsetting him by
+her coolness and self-control. Her safety, the safety of Montfaucon
+depended on her firmness. _In robore fortuna_, she thought.
+
+But that thought she unconsciously uttered in a low voice, as one
+utters a prayer for protection. And at once she felt her adversary's
+grip relax. The old motto, on which he had so often reflected, uttered
+so quietly, at such a moment, by this woman whom he believed to be at
+bay, disconcerted him. He looked at her closely and was astounded.
+Never had her beautiful face worn such a serene air. Over the white
+teeth the lips opened, and the eyes, a moment ago terrified and
+despairing, now regarded him with the quietest smile.
+
+"What on earth is it?" he cried, beside himself, as he recalled her
+astounding laughter near the pool at Hillocks Manor. "Are you going to
+laugh again to-day?"
+
+"I'm laughing for the same reason: you are lost."
+
+He tried to take it as a joke:
+
+"Hang it! How?"
+
+"Yes," she declared. "I told you so from the first moment; and I was
+right."
+
+"You're mad," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+She noticed that he had grown more respectful, and sure of a victory
+which rested in her extraordinary coolness and in the absolute
+similarity of the two scenes, she repeated:
+
+"You are lost. The situation really is the same as at the Manor. There
+Raoul and the children had gone to seek for help; and of a sudden, when
+you were the master, the barrel of a gun was leveled at you. Here, it
+is the same. The three urchins have found men. They are there, as at
+the Manor with their guns.... You remember? They are here. The barrels
+of the guns are leveled at you."
+
+"You l-l-lie!" stammered the ruffian.
+
+"They are there," she declared in a yet more impressive tone. "I've
+heard my boys' signal. They haven't wasted time coming round the tower.
+They are on the other side of that wall."
+
+"You lie!" he cried. "What you say is impossible!"
+
+She said, always with the coolness of a person no longer menaced by
+peril, and with an imperious contempt:
+
+"Turn round!... You'll see _their_ guns leveled at your breast. At a
+word from me they fire! Turn round then!"
+
+He shrunk back. He did not wish to obey. But Dorothy's eyes, blazing,
+irresistible, stronger than he, compelled him; and yielding to their
+compulsion, he turned round.
+
+It was the last quarter of the last minute.
+
+With all the force of her being, with a strength of conviction which
+did not permit the ruffian to think, she commanded:
+
+"Hands up, you blackguard! Or they'll shoot you like a dog! Hands up!
+Shoot there! Show no mercy! Shoot! Hands up!"
+
+D'Estreicher saw the rifle. He raised his hands.
+
+Dorothy sprang on him and in a second tore a revolver from his jacket
+pocket, and aiming at his head, without her heart quickening a beat
+and with a perfectly steady hand, she said slowly, her eyes gleaming
+maliciously:
+
+"Idiot! I told you plainly you were lost."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE SECRET PERISHES
+
+
+The scene had not lasted a minute; and in less than a minute the
+readjustment had taken place. Defeat was changed to victory.
+
+A precarious victory. Dorothy knew that a man like d'Estreicher would
+not long remain the dupe of the illusion with which, by a stroke of
+really incredible daring, she had filled his mind. Nevertheless she
+essayed the impossible to bring about the ruffian's capture, a capture
+which she could not effect alone, and which would only become definite
+if she kept him awed till the freeing of Webster, Errington, and Marco
+Dario.
+
+As authoritative as if she were disposing of an army corps, she gave
+her orders to her rescuers:
+
+"One of you stay there with the rifle leveled, ready to fire at the
+slightest movement, and let the remainder of the troop go to set the
+prisoners free! Hurry up, now. Go round the tower. They're to the left
+of the entrance--a little further on."
+
+The remainder of the troop was Castor and Pollux, unless Saint-Quentin
+went with them, thinking it best simply to leave his rifle, model 1870,
+resting in the loop-hole and aimed directly at the ruffian.
+
+"They are going.... They are entering.... They are searching," she said
+to herself, trying to follow the movements of the children.
+
+But she saw d'Estreicher's tense face little by little relax. He had
+looked at the barrel of the rifle. He had heard the quiet steps of the
+children, so different from the row which a band of peasants would have
+made. Soon she no longer doubted that the ruffian would escape before
+the others came.
+
+The last of his hesitation vanished; he let his arms fall, grinding his
+teeth.
+
+"Sold!" he said. "It's those brats and the rifle is nothing but old
+iron! My God, you have a nerve!"
+
+"Am I to shoot?"
+
+"Come off it! A girl like you kills to defend herself, not for
+killing's sake. To hand me over to justice? Will that give you back the
+diamonds? I would rather have my tongue torn out and be roasted over a
+slow fire than divulge the secret. They're mine. I'll take them when I
+please."
+
+"One step forward and I shoot."
+
+"Right, you've won the party. I'm off."
+
+He listened.
+
+"The brats are gabbling over yonder. By the time they've untied them, I
+shall be a long way off. _Au revoir...._ We shall meet again."
+
+"No," she said.
+
+"Yes. I shall have the last word. The diamonds first. The love affair
+afterwards. I did wrong to mix the two."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You will not have the diamonds. Would I let you go, if I weren't sure?
+But, and I've told you so: you are lost."
+
+"Lost? And why?" he sneered.
+
+"I feel it."
+
+He was about to reply. But the sound of voices nearer came to their
+ears. He leapt out of the guardroom and ran for it, bending low,
+through the bushes.
+
+Dorothy, who had darted after him, aimed at him, with a sudden
+determination to bring him down. But, after a moment's hesitation, she
+lowered her weapon, murmuring:
+
+"No, no. I cannot.... I cannot. And then what good would it be? Anyhow
+my father will be avenged...."
+
+She went towards her friends. The boys had had great difficulty in
+freeing them, so tangled was the network of cords that bound them.
+Webster was the first to get to his feet and run to meet her.
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Gone," she said.
+
+"What! You had a revolver and you let him get away?"
+
+Errington came up, then Dario, both furious.
+
+"He has got away? Is it possible? But which way did he go?"
+
+Webster snatched Dorothy's weapon.
+
+"You hadn't the heart to kill him? Was that it?"
+
+"I had not," said Dorothy.
+
+"A blackguard like that! A murderer! Ah well, that's not our way, I
+swear. Here we are, friends."
+
+Dorothy barred their way.
+
+"And his confederates? There are five or six of them besides
+d'Estreicher--all armed with rifles."
+
+"All the better," said the American. "There are seven shots in the
+revolver."
+
+"I beg you," she said, fearing the result of an unequal battle. "I beg
+you.... Besides, it's too late.... They must have got on board their
+boat."
+
+"We'll see about that."
+
+The three young men set out in pursuit. She would have liked to go
+with them, but Montfaucon clung to her skirt, sobbing, his legs still
+hampered by his bonds.
+
+"Mummy ... mummy ... don't go away.... I was so frightened!"
+
+She no longer thought of anything but him, took him on her knees, and
+consoled him.
+
+"You mustn't cry, Captain dear. It's all over. That nasty man won't
+come back any more. Have you thanked Saint-Quentin? And your comrades
+Castor and Pollux? Where would we have been without them, my darling?"
+
+She kissed the three boys tenderly.
+
+"Yes! Where would we have been? Ah, Saint-Quentin, the idea of the
+rifle.... What a find! You are a splendid fellow, old chap! Come and be
+kissed again! And tell me how you managed to get to us? I didn't miss
+the little heaps of pebbles that you sowed along the path from the inn.
+But why did you go round the marsh? Did you hope to get to the ruins of
+the château by going along the beach at the foot of the cliffs?"
+
+"Yes, mummy," replied Saint-Quentin, very proud at being so
+complimented by her, and deeply moved by her kisses.
+
+"And wasn't it impossible?"
+
+"Yes. But I found a better way ... on the sand, a little boat, which we
+pushed into the sea."
+
+"And you had the courage, the three of you, and the strength to row? It
+must have taken you an hour?"
+
+"An hour and a half, mummy. There were heaps of sandbanks which blocked
+our way. At last we landed not far from here in sight of the tower. And
+when we got here I recognized the voice of d'Estreicher."
+
+"Ah, my poor, dear darlings!"
+
+Again there was a deluge of kisses, which she rained right and left on
+the cheeks of Saint-Quentin, Castor's forehead, and the Captain's head.
+And she laughed! And she sang! It was so good to be alive. So good to
+be no longer face to face with a brute who gripped your wrists and
+sullied you with his abominable leer! But she suddenly broke off in the
+middle of these transports.
+
+"And Maître Delarue? I was forgetting him!"
+
+He was lying at the back of his cell behind a rampart of tall grasses.
+
+"Attend to him! Quick, Saint-Quentin, cut his ropes. Goodness! He has
+fainted. Look here, Maître Delarue, you come to your senses. If not, I
+leave you."
+
+"Leave me!" cried the notary, suddenly waking up. "But you've no right!
+The enemy----"
+
+"The enemy has run away, Maître Delarue."
+
+"He may come back. These are terrible people. Look at the hole their
+chief made in my hat! The donkey finished by throwing me off, just at
+the entrance to the ruins. I took refuge in a tree and refused to come
+down. I didn't stay there long. The ruffian knocked my hat off with a
+bullet."
+
+"Are you dead?"
+
+"No. But I'm suffering from internal pains and bruises."
+
+"That will soon pass off, Maître Delarue. To-morrow there won't be
+anything left, I assure you. Saint-Quentin, I put Maître Delarue in
+your charge. And yours, too, Montfaucon. Rub him."
+
+She hurried off with the intention of joining her three friends, whose
+badly conducted expedition worried her. Starting out at random, without
+any plan of attack, they ran the risk once more of letting themselves
+be taken one by one.
+
+Happily for them, the young men did not know the place where
+d'Estreicher's boat was moored; and though the portion of the peninsula
+situated beyond the ruins was of no great extent, since they were at
+once hampered by masses of rock which formed veritable barriers, she
+found all three of them. Each of them had lost his way in the labyrinth
+of little paths, and each of them, without knowing it, was returning to
+the tower.
+
+Dorothy, who had a finer sense of orientation, did not lose her
+way. She had a flair for the little paths which led nowhere, and
+instinctively chose those which led to her goal. Moreover she soon
+discovered foot-prints. It was the path followed regularly by the band
+in going to and fro between the ruins and the sea. It was no longer
+possible to go astray.
+
+But at this point they heard cries which came from a point straight
+ahead of them. Then the path turned sharply and ran to the right.
+A pile of rocks had necessitated this change of direction, abrupt
+and rugged rocks. Nevertheless they scaled them to avoid making the
+apparently long detour.
+
+Dario who was the most agile and leading, suddenly exclaimed:
+
+"I see them! They're all on the boat.... But what the devil are they
+doing?"
+
+Webster joined him, revolver in hand:
+
+"Yes, I see them too! Let's run down.... We shall be nearer to them."
+
+Before them was the extremity of the plateau, on which the rocks stood,
+on a promontory, a hundred and twenty feet high, which commanded the
+beach. Two very high granite needles formed as it were the pillars of
+an open door, through which they saw the blue expanse of the ocean.
+
+"Look out! Down with you!" commanded Dorothy, dropping full length on
+the ground.
+
+The others flattened themselves against the rocky walls.
+
+A hundred and fifty yards in front of them, on the deck of a large
+motor fishing-boat, there was a group of five men; and among them a
+woman was gesticulating. On seeing Dorothy and her friends, one of the
+men turned sharply, brought his rifle to his shoulder, and fired. A
+splinter of granite flew from the wall near Errington.
+
+"Halt there! Or I'll shoot again!" cried the man who had fired.
+
+Dorothy checked her companions.
+
+"What are you going to do? The cliff is perpendicular. You don't mean
+to jump into the empty air?"
+
+"No, but we can get back to the road and go round," Dario proposed.
+
+"I forbid you to stir. It would be madness."
+
+Webster lost his temper:
+
+"I've a revolver!"
+
+"They have rifles, they have. Besides, you would get there too late.
+The drama would be over."
+
+"What drama?"
+
+"Look."
+
+Dominated by her, they remained quiet, sheltered from the bullets.
+Below them developed, like a performance at which they were compelled
+to be present without taking part in it, what Dorothy had called the
+drama; and all at once they grasped its tragic horror.
+
+The big boat was rocking beside a natural quay which formed the
+landing-place of a peaceful little creek. The woman and the five men
+were bending over an inert body which appeared to be bound with bands
+of red wool. The woman was apostrophizing this sixth individual,
+shaking her fists in his face, and heaping abuse on him, of which only
+a few words reached the ears of the young people.
+
+"Thief!... Coward!... You refuse, do you?... You wait a minute!"
+
+She gave some orders with regard to an operation, for which everything
+was ready, for the young people perceived, when the group of ruffians
+broke up, that the end of a long rope which ran over the mainyard, was
+round the prisoner's neck. Two men caught hold of the other end of it.
+
+The inert body was set on its feet. It stood upright for a few seconds,
+like a doll one is about to make dance. Then, gently, without a jerk,
+they drew it up a yard from the deck.
+
+"D'Estreicher!" murmured one of the young men recognizing the Russian
+soldier's cap.
+
+Dorothy recalled with a shudder the prediction she had made to her
+enemy directly after their meeting at the Château de Roborey. She said
+in a low voice:
+
+"Yes, d'Estreicher."
+
+"What do they want from him?"
+
+"They want to get the diamonds from him."
+
+"But he hasn't got them."
+
+"No. But they may believe he has them. I suspected that that was what
+they had in mind. I noticed the savage expression of their faces and
+the glances they exchanged as they left the ruins by d'Estreicher's
+orders. They obeyed him in order to prepare the trap into which he has
+fallen."
+
+Below, the figure only remained suspended from the yard for an instant.
+They lowered the doll. Then they drew it up again twice; and the woman
+yelled:
+
+"Will you speak?... The treasure you promised us?... What have you done
+with it?"
+
+Beside Dorothy, Webster muttered:
+
+"It isn't possible! We can't allow them to...."
+
+"What?" said Dorothy. "You wanted to kill him a little while ago.... Do
+you want to save him now?"
+
+Webster and his friends did not quite know what they wanted. But they
+refused to remain inactive any longer in presence of this heartrending
+spectacle. The cliff was perpendicular, but there were fissures and
+runlets of sand in it. Webster, seeing that the man with the rifle was
+no longer paying any attention to them, risked the descent. Dario and
+Errington followed him.
+
+The attempt was vain. The gang had no intention of fighting. The woman
+started the motor. When the three young men set foot on the sand of
+the beach, the boat was moving out to sea, with the engine going full
+speed. The American vainly fired the seven shots in his revolver.
+
+He was furious; and he said to Dorothy who got down to him:
+
+"All the same ... all the same we should have acted differently....
+There goes a band of rogues, clearing off under our very eyes."
+
+"What can we do?" said Dorothy. "Isn't the chief culprit punished? When
+they're out to sea, they'll search him again, and once certain that
+his pockets are really empty, that he knows the secret and will not
+reveal it, they'll throw their chief into the sea, along with the false
+Marquis, whose corpse is actually at the bottom of the hold."
+
+"And that's enough for you? The punishment of d'Estreicher?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You hate him intensely then?"
+
+"He murdered my father," she said.
+
+The young men bowed gravely. Then Dario resumed:
+
+"But the others?..."
+
+"Let them go and get hanged somewhere else! It's much better for us.
+The band arrested and handed over to justice would have meant an
+inquiry, a trial, the whole adventure spread broadcast. Was that to our
+interest? The Marquis de Beaugreval advised us to settle our affairs
+among ourselves."
+
+Errington sighed:
+
+"Our affairs are all settled. The secret of the diamonds is lost."
+
+Far away, northwards, towards Brittany, the boat was moving away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That same evening, towards nine o'clock, after having intrusted Maître
+Delarue to the care of the widow Amoureux--all he thought of was
+getting a good night's rest and returning to his office as quickly
+as possible--and after having enjoined on the widow absolute silence
+about the assault of which she had been the victim, Errington and Dario
+harnessed their horses to the caravan. Saint-Quentin led One-eyed
+Magpie behind it. They returned by the stony path up the gorge to the
+ruins of Roche-Périac. Dorothy and the children resumed possession of
+their lodging. The three young men installed themselves in the cells of
+the tower.
+
+Next morning, early, Archibald Webster mounted his motor-cycle. He did
+not return till noon.
+
+"I've come from Sarzeau," he said. "I have seen the monks of the abbey.
+I have bought from them the ruins of Roche-Périac."
+
+"Heavens!" cried Dorothy. "Do you mean to end your days here?"
+
+"No; but Errington, Dario, and I wish to search in peace; and for peace
+there is no place like home."
+
+"Archibald Webster, you seem to be very rich; are you as firmly bent on
+finding the diamonds as all that?"
+
+"I'm bent on this business of our ancestor Beaugreval ending as it
+ought to end, and that chance shouldn't, some day or other, give those
+diamonds to some one, without any right to them, who happens to come
+along. Will you help us, Dorothy?"
+
+"Goodness, no."
+
+"Hang it! Why not?"
+
+"Because as far as I am concerned, the adventure came to an end with
+the punishment of the culprit."
+
+They looked downcast.
+
+"Nevertheless you're staying on?"
+
+"Yes, I need rest and my four boys need it too. Twelve days here,
+leading the family life with you, will do us a world of good. On the
+twenty-fourth of July, in the morning, I'm off."
+
+"The date is fixed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"For us, too?"
+
+"Yes. I'm taking you with me."
+
+"And to where do we travel?"
+
+"An old Manor in Vendée where, at the end of July, other descendants
+of the lord of Beaugreval will find themselves gathered together. I'm
+eager to introduce you to our cousins Davernoie and Chagny-Roborey.
+After that you will be at liberty to return here ... to bury yourselves
+with the diamonds of Golconda."
+
+"Along with you, Dorothy?"
+
+"Without me."
+
+"In that case," said Webster, "I sell my ruins."
+
+For the three young men those few days were a continuous enchantment.
+During the morning they searched, without any kind of method be it
+said, and with an ardor that lessened all the more quickly because
+Dorothy did not take part in their investigations. Really they were
+only waiting for the moment when they would be with her again. They
+lunched together, near the caravan, which Dorothy had established under
+the shade of the big oak which commanded the avenue of trees.
+
+A delightful meal, followed by an afternoon no less delightful, and by
+an evening which they would have willingly prolonged till the coming
+of dawn. Not a cloud in the sky spoilt the beautiful weather. Not a
+traveler tried to make his way into their domain or pass beyond the
+notice they had nailed to a branch: "Private property. Man-traps."
+
+They lived by themselves, with the four boys with whom they had become
+the warmest friends, and in whose games they took part, all seven of
+them in an ecstasy before her whom they called the wonderful Dorothy.
+
+She charmed and dazzled them. Her presence of mind during the painful
+day of the 12th of July, her coolness in the chamber in the tower,
+her journey to the inn, her unyielding struggle against d'Estreicher,
+her courage, her gayety, were so many things that awoke in them an
+astounded admiration. She seemed to them the most natural and the most
+mysterious of creatures. For all that she lavished explanations on them
+and told them all about her childhood, her life as nurse, her life as
+showman, the events at the Château de Roborey and Hillocks Manor,
+they could not bring themselves to grasp the fact that she was at once
+the Princess of Argonne and circus-manager, that she was just that,
+manifestly as reserved as she was fanciful, manifestly the daughter
+of a grand seignior every whit as much as mountebank and rope-dancer.
+But her delicate tenderness towards the four children touched them
+profoundly, to such a degree did the maternal instinct reveal itself in
+her affectionate looks and patient care.
+
+On the fourth day Marco Dario succeeded in drawing her aside and made
+his proposal:
+
+"I have two sisters who would love you like a sister. I live in an old
+palace in which, if you would come to it, you would wear the air of a
+lady of the Renaissance."
+
+On the fifth day the trembling Errington spoke to her of his mother,
+"who would be so happy to have a daughter like you." On the sixth day
+it was Webster's turn. On the seventh day they nearly came to blows. On
+the eighth day, they clamored to her to choose between them.
+
+"Why between _you_?" said she laughingly. "You are not the only people
+in my life, besides my four boys. I have relations, cousins, other
+suitors perhaps."
+
+"Choose."
+
+On the ninth day, under severe pressure, she promised to choose.
+
+"Well there," she said. "I'll set you all in a row and kiss the one who
+shall be my husband."
+
+"When?"
+
+"On the first day of the month of August."
+
+"Swear it!"
+
+"I swear it."
+
+After that they stopped searching for the diamonds. As Errington
+observed--and Montfaucon had said it before him--the diamonds they
+desired were she, Dorothy. Their ancestor Beaugreval could not have
+foreseen for them a more magnificent treasure.
+
+On the morning of the 24th Dorothy gave the signal for their departure.
+They quitted the ruins of Roche-Périac and said good-bye to the riches
+of the Marquis de Beaugreval.
+
+"All the same," said Dario. "You ought to have searched, cousin
+Dorothy. You only are capable of discovering what no one has discovered
+for two centuries."
+
+With a careless gesture she replied:
+
+"Our excellent ancestor took care to tell us himself where the fortune
+was to be found--_In robore_.... Let us accept his decision."
+
+They traveled again the stages which she had traveled already, crossed
+the Vilaine, and took, the road to Nantes. In the villages--one must
+live; and the young girl accepted help from no one--Dorothy's Circus
+gave performances. Fresh cause for amazement on the part of the three
+foreigners. Dorothy conducting the parade, Dorothy on One-eyed Magpie,
+Dorothy addressing the public, what sparkling and picturesque scenes!
+
+They slept two nights at Nantes, where Dorothy desired to see Maître
+Delarue. Quite recovered from his emotions, the notary welcomed her
+warmly, introduced her to his family, and kept her to lunch.
+
+Finally on the last day of the month, starting early in the morning,
+they reached Hillocks Manor in the middle of the afternoon. Dorothy
+left the caravan in front of the gateway with the boys, and entered,
+accompanied by the three young men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The court-yard was empty. The farm-servants must be at work in the
+fields. But through the open windows of the Manor they heard the noise
+of a violent discussion.
+
+A man's voice, harsh and common--Dorothy recognized it as the voice of
+Voirin, the money-lender--was scolding furiously; reinforced by thumps
+on the table:
+
+"You've got to pay, Monsieur Raoul. Here's the bill of sale, signed
+by your grandfather. At five o'clock on the 31st of July, 1921, three
+hundred thousand francs in bank-notes or Government securities. If not,
+the Manor is mine. It's four-fifty. Where's the money?"
+
+Dorothy heard next the voice of Raoul, then the voice of Count Octave
+de Chagny offering to arrange to pay the sum.
+
+"No arrangements," said the money-lender. "Bank-notes. It's four
+fifty-six."
+
+Archibald Webster caught Dorothy by the sleeve and murmured:
+
+"Raoul? It's one of our cousins?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the other man?"
+
+"A money-lender."
+
+"Offer him a check."
+
+"He won't take it."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"He wants the Manor."
+
+"What of it? We're not going to let a thing like that happen."
+
+Dorothy said to him:
+
+"You're a good fellow, Archibald, and I thank you. But do you think
+that it's by chance that we're here on the 31st of July at four minutes
+to five?"
+
+She went towards the steps, mounted them, crossed the hall, and entered
+the room.
+
+Two cries greeted her appearance on the scene. Raoul started up, very
+pale, the Countess de Chagny ran to her.
+
+She stopped them with a gesture.
+
+In front of the table, Voirin, supported by two friends whom he had
+brought as witnesses, his papers and deeds spread out before him, held
+his watch in his hand.
+
+"Five o'clock!" he cried in a tone of victory.
+
+She corrected him:
+
+"Five o'clock by your watch, perhaps. But look at the clock. We have
+still three minutes."
+
+"And what of it?" said the money-lender.
+
+"Well, three minutes are more than we need to pay this little bill and
+clear you out of the house."
+
+She opened the traveling cape she was wearing and from one of its inner
+pockets drew a huge yellow envelope which she tore open. Out of it came
+a bundle of thousand-franc notes and a packet of securities.
+
+"Count, monsieur. No, not here. It would take rather a time; and we're
+eager to be by ourselves."
+
+Gently, but with a continuous pressure, she pushed him towards the
+door, and his two witnesses with him.
+
+"Excuse me, monsieur, but it's a family party ... cousins who haven't
+seen one another for two hundred years.... And we're eager to be by
+ourselves.... You're not angry with me, are you? And, by the way, you
+will send the receipt to Monsieur Davernoie. Au revoir, gentlemen....
+There: there's five o'clock striking.... Au revoir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+IN ROBORE FORTUNA
+
+
+When Dorothy had shut the door on the three men, she turned to find
+Raoul flushed and frowning; and he said:
+
+"No, no. I can't allow it.... You should have consulted me first."
+
+"Don't get angry," she said gently. "I wished first of all to rid you
+of this fellow Voirin. That gives us time to think things out."
+
+"I've thought them out!" he snapped. "I consider that settlement null
+and void!"
+
+"I beg you, Raoul--a little patience. Postpone your decision till
+to-morrow. By to-morrow, perhaps, I shall have persuaded you."
+
+She kissed the Countess de Chagny, then beckoning to the three
+strangers, she introduced them.
+
+"I bring you guests, madame. Our cousin George Errington, of London.
+Our cousin Marco Dario, of Genoa. Our cousin Archibald Webster, of
+Philadelphia. Knowing that you were to come here, I was determined that
+the family should be complete."
+
+Thereupon she introduced Raoul Davernoie, Count Octave and his wife.
+They exchanged vigorous handshakes.
+
+"Excellent," she said. "We are united as I desired, and we have
+thousands and thousands of things to talk about. I've seen d'Estreicher
+again, Raoul; and as I predicted he has been hanged. Also I met your
+grandfather and Juliet Assire a long way from here. But perhaps we are
+getting along a bit too quickly. First of all there is a most urgent
+duty to fulfill with regard to our three cousins who are bitter enemies
+of the dry régime."
+
+She opened the cupboard and found a bottle of port and some biscuits,
+and as she poured out the wine, she set about relating her expedition
+to Roche-Périac. She told the story quickly and a trifle incoherently,
+omitting details and getting them in the wrong order, but for the
+most part giving them a comic turn which greatly amused the Count and
+Countess de Chagny.
+
+"Then," said the Countess when she came to the end of her story, "the
+diamonds are lost?"
+
+"That," she replied, "is the business of my three cousins. Ask them."
+
+During the young girl's explanations, they had all three stood rather
+apart, listening to Dorothy, pleasant to their hosts, but wearing an
+absent-minded air, as if they were absorbed in their own thoughts; and
+those thoughts the Countess must be thinking too, as well as the Count,
+for there was one matter which filled the minds of all of them and made
+them ill at ease, till it should be cleared up.
+
+It was Errington who took the matter up, before the Countess had asked
+the question; and he said to the young girl:
+
+"Cousin Dorothy, we don't understand.... No, we're quite in the dark;
+and I think you won't think us indiscreet if we speak quite openly."
+
+"Speak away, Errington."
+
+"Ah, well, it's this--that three hundred thousand francs----"
+
+"Where did they come from?" said Dorothy ending his sentence for him.
+"That's what you want to know, isn't it?"
+
+"Well, yes."
+
+She bent towards the Englishman's ear and whispered:
+
+"All my savings ... earned by the sweat of my brow."
+
+"I beg you...."
+
+"Doesn't that explanation satisfy you? Then I'll be frank."
+
+She bent towards his other ear, and in a lower whisper still:
+
+"I stole them."
+
+"Oh, don't joke about it, cousin."
+
+"But goodness, George Errington, if I did not steal them, what do you
+suppose I did do?"
+
+He said slowly:
+
+"My friends and I are asking ourselves if you didn't find them."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the ruins of Périac!"
+
+She clapped her hands.
+
+"Bravo! They've guessed it. You're right, George Errington, of London:
+I found them at the foot of a tree, under a heap of dead leaves and
+stones. That's where the Marquis de Beaugreval hid his bank-notes and
+six per cents."
+
+The other two cousins stepped forward. Marco Dario, who looked very
+worried, said gravely: "Be serious, cousin Dorothy, we beg you, and
+don't laugh at us. Are we to consider the diamonds lost or found? It's
+a matter of great importance to some of us--I admit that it is to me. I
+had given up hopes of them. But now all at once you let us imagine an
+unexpected miracle. Is there one?"
+
+She said:
+
+"But why this supposition?"
+
+"Firstly because of this unexpected money which we might attribute
+to the sale of one of the diamonds. And then ... and then.... I must
+say it, because it seems to us, taking it all round, quite impossible
+that you should have given up the search for that treasure. What? You,
+Dorothy, after months of conflicts and victories, at the moment you
+reach your goal, you suddenly decide to stand by with your arms folded!
+Not a single effort! Not one investigation! No, no, on your part it's
+incredible."
+
+She looked from one to the other mischievously.
+
+"So that according to you, cousins, I must have performed the double
+miracle of finding the diamonds without searching for them."
+
+"There's nothing you couldn't do," said Webster gayly.
+
+The Countess supported them:
+
+"Nothing, Dorothy. And I see from your air that you've succeeded in
+this too."
+
+She did not say no. She smiled quietly. They were all round her,
+curious or anxious. The Countess murmured:
+
+"You have succeeded. Haven't you?"
+
+"Yes," said Dorothy.
+
+She had succeeded! The insoluble problem, with which so many minds had
+wrestled so many times and at such length, for ages--she had solved it!
+
+"But when? At what moment?" cried George Errington. "You never left us!"
+
+"Oh, it goes a long way further back than that. It goes back to my
+visit to the Château de Roborey."
+
+"Eh, what? What's that you say?" cried the astounded Count de Chagny.
+
+"From the first minute I knew at any rate the nature of the
+hiding-place in which the treasure was shut up."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"From the motto."
+
+"From the motto?"
+
+"But it's so plain! So plain that I've never understood the blindness
+of those who have searched for the treasure, and that I went so far
+as to declare the man who, when concealing a treasure, gave so much
+information about it, ingenuous in the extreme. But he was right, was
+the Marquis de Beaugreval. He could engrave it all over the place,
+on the clock of his château, on the wax of his seals, since to his
+descendants his motto meant nothing at all."
+
+"If you knew, why didn't you act at once?" said the Countess.
+
+"I knew the nature of the hiding-place, but not the spot on which it
+stood. This information was supplied by the gold medal. Three hours
+after my arrival at the ruins I knew all about it."
+
+Marco Dario repeated several times.
+
+"_In robore fortuna.... In robore fortuna...._"
+
+And the others also pronounced the three words, as if they were a
+cabalistic formula, the mere utterance of which is sufficient to
+produce marvelous results.
+
+"Dario," she said, "you know Latin? And you, Errington? And you,
+Webster?"
+
+"Well enough," said Dario, "to make out the sense of those three
+words--there's nothing tricky about them. _Fortuna_ means the
+fortune...."
+
+"In this case the diamonds," said she.
+
+"That's right," said Dario; and he continued his translation: "The
+diamonds are ... in _robore_...."
+
+"In the firm heart," said Errington, laughing.
+
+"In vigor, in force," added Webster.
+
+"And for you three that's all that the word '_robore_,' the ablative of
+the Latin word 'robur' means?"
+
+"Goodness, yes!" they answered. "_Robur_ ... force ... firmness ...
+energy."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders disdainfully:
+
+"Ah, well, I, who know just about as much Latin as you do, but have
+the very great advantage over you of being a country girl--to me, when
+I walk in the country and see that variety of oak which is called the
+_rouvre_, it nearly always occurs that the old French word _rouvre_ is
+derived from the Latin word 'robur,' which means force, and also means
+oak. And that's what led me, when on the 12th of July I passed, along
+with you, near the oak, which stands out so prominently in the middle
+of the clearing, at the beginning of the avenue of oaks--that's what
+led me to make the connection between that tree and the hiding-place,
+and so to translate the information which our ancestor untiringly
+repeated to us: 'I have hidden my fortune in the hollow of a rouvre
+oak.' There you are. As you perceive,--it's as simple as winking."
+
+Having made her explanation with a charming gayety, she was silent. The
+three young men gazed at her in wonder and amazement. Her charming eyes
+were full of her simple satisfaction at having astonished her friends
+by this uncommon quality, this inexplicable faculty with which she was
+gifted.
+
+"You _are_ different," said Webster. "You belong to a race ... a
+race----"
+
+"A race of sound Frenchmen, who have plenty of good sense, like all the
+French."
+
+"No, no," said he, incapable of formulating the thoughts which
+oppressed all three of them. "No, no. It's something else."
+
+He bent down before her and brushed her hand with his lips. Errington
+and Dario also bent down in the same respectful act, while, to hide her
+emotion she mechanically translated:
+
+"_Fortuna_, fortune.... In _robore_, in the oak."
+
+And she added:
+
+"In the deepest depths of the oak, in the heart of the oak, one might
+say. There was about six feet from the ground one of those ring-shaped
+swellings, that scar which wounds in the trunks of trees leave. And I
+had an intuition that that was the place in which I must search, and
+that there the Marquis de Beaugreval had buried the diamonds he was
+keeping for his second existence. There was nothing else to do but make
+the test. That's what I did, during the first few nights while my three
+cousins were sleeping. Saint-Quentin and I got to work at our exploring
+with our gimlets and saws and center-bits. And one evening I suddenly
+came across something too hard to bore. I had not been mistaken. The
+opening was enlarged and one by one I drew out of it four balls of the
+size of a hazel-nut. All I had to do was to clear off a regular matrix
+of dirt to bring to light four diamonds. Here are three of them. The
+fourth is in pawn with Maître Delarue, who very kindly agreed, after
+a good deal of hesitation, and a minute expert examination by his
+jeweler, to lend me the necessary money till to-morrow."
+
+She gave the three diamonds to her three friends, magnificent
+stones, of the same size, quite extraordinary size, and cut in the
+old-fashioned way with opposing facets. Errington, Webster, and Dario
+found it disturbing merely to look at them and handle them. Two
+centuries before, the Marquis de Beaugreval, that strange visionary,
+dead of his splendid dream of a resurrection, had intrusted them to
+the very tree under which doubtless he used to go and lie and read.
+For two hundred years Nature had continued her slow and uninterrupted
+work of building walls, ever and ever thicker walls, round the little
+prison chosen with such a subtle intelligence. For two hundred years
+generation after generation had passed near this fabulous treasure
+searching for it perhaps by reason of a confused legend, and now
+the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of the good man, having
+discovered the undiscoverable secret, and penetrated to the most
+mysterious and obscure of caskets, offered them the precious stones
+which their ancestor had brought back from the Indies.
+
+"Keep them," she said. "Three families sprung from the three sons of
+the Marquis have lived outside France. The French descendants of the
+fourth son will share the fourth diamond."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Count Octave in a tone of surprise.
+
+"I say that we are three French heirs, you, Raoul, and I, that each
+diamond, according to the jeweler's valuation is worth several
+millions, and that our rights, the rights of all three of us, are
+equal."
+
+"My right is null," said Count Octave.
+
+"Why?" she said. "We are partners. A compact, a promise to share the
+treasure made you a partner with my father and Raoul's father."
+
+"A lapsed compact!" cried Raoul Davernoie in his turn. "For my part I
+accept nothing. The will leaves no room for discussion. Four medals,
+four diamonds. Your three cousins and you, Dorothy; you only have the
+right to inherit the riches of the Marquis!"
+
+She protested warmly:
+
+"And you too, Raoul! You too! We fought together! Your grandfather
+was a direct descendant of the Marquis! He possessed the token of the
+medal!"
+
+"That medal was of no value."
+
+"How do you know? You've never had it in your hands."
+
+"I have."
+
+"Impossible. There was nothing in the disc I fished up under your eyes.
+It was simply a bait to catch d'Estreicher. Then?"
+
+"When my grandfather came back from his journey to Roche-Périac, where
+you met him with Juliet Assire, one day I found him weeping in the
+orchard. He was looking at a gold medal, which he let me take from him
+and look at. On it were all the indications you have described. But the
+two faces were canceled by a cross, which manifestly, as I told you,
+deprived it of all value."
+
+Dorothy appeared greatly surprised by this revelation, and she replied
+in an absent-minded tone:
+
+"Oh! ... really?... You saw?..."
+
+She went to one of the windows and stood there for some minutes, her
+forehead resting against a pane. The last veils which obscured the
+adventure were withdrawn. Really there had been two gold medals. One,
+which was invalid and belonged to Jean d'Argonne, had been stolen
+by d'Estreicher, recovered by Raoul's father, and sent to the old
+Baron. The other, the valid one was the one which belonged to the old
+Baron, who, out of prudence or greed, had never spoken of it to his
+son or grandson. In his madness, and dispossessed in his turn of the
+token, which he had hidden in his dog's collar, he had gone to win the
+treasure with the other medal, which he had intrusted to Juliet Assire,
+and which d'Estreicher had been unable to find.
+
+All at once Dorothy saw all the consequences which followed this
+revelation. In taking from the dog's collar the medal which she
+believed to be hers, she had robbed Raoul of his inheritance. In
+returning to the Manor and offering alms to the son of the man who had
+been an accomplice in her father's murder, she had imagined that she
+was performing an act of generosity and forgiveness, whereas she was
+merely restoring a small portion of that of which she had robbed him.
+
+She restrained herself and said nothing. She must act cautiously in
+order that Raoul might never suspect his father's crime. When she came
+from the window to the middle of the room, you would have said that her
+eyes were full of tears. Nevertheless she was smiling, and she said in
+a careless tone:
+
+"Serious business to-morrow. To-day let us rejoice at being reunited
+and celebrate that reunion. Will you invite me to dinner, Raoul? And my
+children too?"
+
+She had recovered all her gayety. She ran to the big gateway of the
+orchard and called the boys, who came joyfully. The Captain threw
+himself into the arms of the Countess de Chagny. Saint-Quentin kissed
+her hand. They observed that Castor and Pollux had swollen noses, signs
+of a recent conflict.
+
+The dinner was washed down with sparkling cider and champagne. All the
+evening Dorothy was light-hearted and affectionate to them all. They
+felt that she was happy to be alive.
+
+Archibald Webster recalled her promise to her. It was the next day, the
+first of August, that she was to choose among her suitors.
+
+"I stick to my promise," she said.
+
+"You will choose among those who are here? For I suppose that cousin
+Raoul is not the last to come forward as a candidate."
+
+"Among those who are here. And as there can be only one chosen, I
+insist on kissing you all to-night."
+
+She kissed the four young men, then the Count and Countess, then the
+four boys.
+
+The party did not break up till midnight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next morning Raoul, Octave de Chagny, his wife, and the three strangers
+were at breakfast in the dining-room when a farm servant brought a
+letter.
+
+Raoul looked at the handwriting and murmured gloomily:
+
+"Ah, a letter from her.... Like the last time.... She has gone."
+
+He remembered, as did the Count and Countess, her departure from
+Roborey.
+
+He tore open the letter and read aloud:
+
+    "Raoul, my friend,
+
+    "I earnestly beg you to believe blindly what I am going to tell
+    you. It was revealed to me by certain facts which I learnt only
+    yesterday.
+
+    "What I am writing is not a supposition, but an absolute certainty.
+    I know it as surely as I know that light exists, and though I have
+    very sound reasons for not divulging the proofs of it, I
+    nevertheless wish you to act and think with the same conviction
+    and serenity as I do myself.
+
+    "By my eternal salvation, this is the truth. Errington, Webster,
+    Dario, and you, Raoul, are the veritable heirs of the Marquis de
+    Beaugreval, specified in his will. Therefore the fourth diamond is
+    yours. Webster will be delighted to go to Nantes to-morrow to give
+    Maître Delarue a check for three hundred thousand francs and bring
+    you back the diamond. I am sending to Maître Delarue at the same
+    time as the receipt which he signed, the necessary instructions.
+
+    "I will confess, Raoul, that I felt a little disappointed yesterday
+    when I discerned the truth--not much--just a few tears. To-day I am
+    quite contented. I had no great liking for that fortune--too many
+    crimes and too many horrors went with it. Some things I should
+    never have been able to forget. And then ... and then money is a
+    prison; and I could not bear to live locked up.
+
+    "Raoul, and you, my three new friends, you asked me,--rather by way
+    of a joke, wasn't it?--to choose a sweetheart among those who found
+    themselves at the Manor yesterday. May I answer you in rather the
+    same manner, that my choice is made, that it is only possible for
+    me to devote myself to the youngest of my four boys first, then to
+    the others? Don't be angry with me, my friends. My heart, up to
+    now, is only the heart of a mother; and it only thrills with
+    tenderness, anxiety and love for them. What would they do if I were
+    to leave them? What would become of my poor Montfaucon? They need
+    me and the really healthy life we lead together. Like them I am a
+    nomad, a vagabond. There is no dwelling-place as good as our
+    caravan. Let me go back to the high road.
+
+    "And then, after a time we will meet again, shall we? Our cousins
+    the de Chagny will welcome us at Roborey. Come, let us fix a date.
+    Christmas and New Year's Day there--does that please you?
+
+    "Good-bye, my friend. My best love to you all, and a few tears....
+    _In robore fortuna._ Fortune is in the firm heart.
+
+    "I kiss you all.
+
+    "DOROTHY."
+
+A long silence followed the reading of this letter.
+
+At the end of it Count Octave said:
+
+"Strange creature! When one considers that she had the four diamonds in
+her pocket, that is to say ten or twelve million francs, and that it
+would have been so easy for her to say nothing and keep them."
+
+But the young men did not take up this train of thought. For them
+Dorothy was the very spirit of happiness. And happiness was going away.
+
+Raoul looked at his watch and beckoned to them to come with him. He led
+them to the highest point of the Hillocks.
+
+On the horizon, on a white road which ran upwards among the meadows,
+the caravan was moving. Three boys walked beside One-eyed Magpie.
+Saint-Quentin was leading him.
+
+Behind, all alone, Dorothy--Princess of Argonne and rope-dancer.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Secret Tomb, by Maurice Le Blanc
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59072 ***