py out of this, he will have done with Chouannerie!"

"Silence!" said Monsieur Joseph. "If you want conspirators, there is one
here, and that is myself. I will go to Sonnay with you--though your
accusations are ridiculous, and there is no plan for a rising. But I
will not allow you to search my house, if there were ten generals and an
army behind the wood there. I will shoot down any one who attempts it."

"So much the worse for you, monsieur," said Simon.

"Go back to General Ratoneau and tell him what I say," said Monsieur
Joseph. "He will not doubt my word. Wait. I will speak to him myself.
Tell him I will meet him in ten minutes under the old oaks up there. I
wish for a private word with him."

"Ten minutes, monsieur,"--Simon hesitated.

"Do as you are told," said Monsieur Joseph; and he stepped back into his
room, pulled the shutters sharply to, and shut the window.

Simon lingered a minute or two, looking round the house, giving the
growling dogs a wide berth, then went back with his message to the wood,
and took the precaution of sending a man to watch the lanes on the other
side. He did not, of course, for a moment suppose that there was any one
there, except, most probably, Ange de la Mariniere and his bride; but it
would not do to let him once again escape the General. What his plans
might be, Simon only half guessed; but he knew they were desperate, and
he knew that the man who balked him would repent it. And besides all
this, he had not yet received a sou for all the dirty work he had lately
done. But in the bitter depths of his discontented mind, Simon began to
suspect that he had made a mistake in committing himself, body and soul,
to General Ratoneau.

Monsieur Joseph took a small pistol from a cabinet, loaded it, then ran
lightly upstairs and called Riette, who came flying to meet him. He took
her in his arms and kissed her shaggy pate.

"Your hair wants brushing, mademoiselle," he said. "You are a contrast
to your beautiful cousin."

"Oh, papa, isn't it glorious to think that Helene has married Angelot?
They do love each other so. She has been telling me that if only he
were back safe from the Etang des Morts, she would be the very happiest
woman in the world."

"I hope she will be, and soon," said Monsieur Joseph. But he trembled as
he spoke, for if Simon was right, Angelot and Cesar might be even now in
the hands of the police.

"Listen, Riette," he said. "There are some men outside, polic