he end
of the embrasure, the wider part, where he had left the rope-ladder.
After fixing it to the bars, he called Daubrecq:

"Psst!... It's all right... Are you ready?"

"Yes... coming... One more second, while I listen... All right...
They're asleep... give me the ladder."

Lupin lowered it and asked:

"Must I come down?"

"No... I feel a little weak... but I shall manage."

Indeed, he reached the window of the embrasure pretty quickly and crept
along the passage in the wake of his rescuer. The open air, however,
seemed to make him giddy. Also, to give himself strength, he had drunk
half the bottle of wine; and he had a fainting-fit that kept him lying
on the stones of the embrasure for half an hour. Lupin, losing patience,
was fastening him to one end of the rope, of which the other end was
knotted round the bars and was preparing to let him down like a bale of
goods, when Daubrecq woke up, in better condition:

"That's over," he said. "I feel fit now. Will it take long?"

"Pretty long. We are a hundred and fifty yards up."

"How was it that d'Albufex did not foresee that it was possible to
escape this way?"

"The cliff is perpendicular."

"And you were able to..."

"Well, your cousins insisted... And then one has to live, you know, and
they were free with their money."

"The dear, good souls!" said Daubrecq. "Where are they?"

"Down below, in a boat."

"Is there a river, then?"

"Yes, but we won't talk, if you don't mind. It's dangerous."

"One word more. Had you been there long when you threw me the letter?"

"No, no. A quarter of an hour or so. I'll tell you all about it...
Meanwhile, we must hurry."

Lupin went first, after recommending Daubrecq to hold tight to the rope
and to come down backward. He would give him a hand at the difficult
places.

It took them over forty minutes to reach the platform of the ledge
formed by the cliff; and Lupin had several times to help his companion,
whose wrists, still bruised from the torture, had lost all their
strength and suppleness.

Over and over again, he groaned:

"Oh, the swine, they've done for me!... The swine!... Ah, d'Albufex,
I'll make you pay dear for this!..."

"Ssh!" said Lupin.

"What's the matter?"

"A noise... up above..."

Standing motionless on the platform, they listened. Lupin thought of the
Sire de Tancarville and the sentry who had killed him with a shot from
his harquebus. He shivered, feeling all the anguish of the