to
a cavalier, or by a cavalier to a lady, which had been disturbed by the
presence of d'Artagnan and his yellow horse.

Aramis said that as these sorts of affairs were mysterious, it was
better not to fathom them.

They understood, then, from the few words which escaped from d'Artagnan,
what affair was in hand, and as they thought that overtaking his man, or
losing sight of him, d'Artagnan would return to his rooms, they kept on
their way.

When they entered d'Artagnan's chamber, it was empty; the landlord,
dreading the consequences of the encounter which was doubtless about to
take place between the young man and the stranger, had, consistent with
the character he had given himself, judged it prudent to decamp.

9 D'ARTAGNAN SHOWS HIMSELF

As Athos and Porthos had foreseen, at the expiration of a half hour,
d'Artagnan returned. He had again missed his man, who had disappeared
as if by enchantment. D'Artagnan had run, sword in hand, through all the
neighboring streets, but had found nobody resembling the man he sought
for. Then he came back to the point where, perhaps, he ought to have
begun, and that was to knock at the door against which the stranger had
leaned; but this proved useless--for though he knocked ten or twelve
times in succession, no one answered, and some of the neighbors, who put
their noses out of their windows or were brought to their doors by the
noise, had assured him that that house, all the openings of which were
tightly closed, had not been inhabited for six months.

While d'Artagnan was running through the streets and knocking at doors,
Aramis had joined his companions; so that on returning home d'Artagnan
found the reunion complete.

"Well!" cried the three Musketeers all together, on seeing d'Artagnan
enter with his brow covered with perspiration and his countenance upset
with anger.

"Well!" cried he, throwing his sword upon the bed, "this man must be the
devil in person; he has disappeared like a phantom, like a shade, like a
specter."

"Do you believe in apparitions?" asked Athos of Porthos.

"I never believe in anything I have not seen, and as I never have seen
apparitions, I don't believe in them."

"The Bible," said Aramis, "make our belief in them a law; the ghost of
Samuel appeared to Saul, and it is an article of faith that I should be
very sorry to see any doubt thrown upon, Porthos."

"At all events, man or devil, body or shadow, illusion or reality, this
man i