rust into his trousers' pocket.

"Ah! you rascal! I am killed!" howled the coachman, giving a bound
backward. Lambernier, profiting by his freedom, jumped upon his feet,
and, without troubling himself as to his adversary, who had fallen on
his knees and was pressing his hand to his left thigh; he picked up his
cap and vest and started off through the clearing. Rousselet, who until
then had prudently kept aside, tried to stop the workman, at a cry from
his companion, but the scoundrel brandished his iron compass before his
eyes with such an ugly look that the peasant promptly left the way open
for him.

At this tragic and unexpected denouement, Bergenheim, who was getting
ready to make his appearance from behind the trees and to interpose his
authority, started in full pursuit of the would-be murderer. From the
direction he took, he judged that he would try to reach the river by
passing over the rock. He walked in this direction, with his gun over
his shoulder, until he reached the foot of the steps which descended
into the grotto. Christian crouched behind some bushes to wait for
Lambernier, who must pass this way, and it was at this moment that
Gerfaut, who was forty feet below him, saw him without suspecting the
reason for his attitude.

Bergenheim soon found out that he had calculated correctly when he
heard a sound like that made by a wild boar when he rushes through the
thickets and breaks the small branches in his path, as if they were no
more than blades of grass. Soon Lambernier appeared with a haggard, wild
look and a face bleeding from the blows he had received. He stopped for
a moment to catch his breath and to wipe off his compass with a handful
of grass; he then staunched the blood streaming from his nose and mouth,
and after putting on his coat started rapidly in the direction of the
river.

"Halt!" exclaimed the Baron, suddenly, rising before him and barring his
passage.

The workman jumped back in terror; then he drew out his compass a second
time and made a movement as if to throw himself upon this new adversary,
out of sheer desperation. Christian, at this threatening pantomime,
raised his gun to his cheek with as much coolness and precision as he
would have shown at firing into a body of soldiers.

"Down with your weapon!" he exclaimed, in his commanding voice, "or I
will shoot you down like a rabbit."

The carpenter uttered a hoarse cry as he saw the muzzle of the gun
within an inch of his h