the late
M. du Vallon, my father did?'"

"Well?" said Aramis.

"Well, having this weakness, my father insisted upon going down into the
garden, instead of going to bed; his foot slipped on the first stair,
the staircase was steep; my father fell against a stone in which an iron
hinge was fixed. The hinge gashed his temple; and he was stretched out
dead upon the spot."

Aramis raised his eyes to his friend: "These are two extraordinary
circumstances," said he; "let us not infer that there may succeed a
third. It is not becoming in a man of your strength to be superstitious,
my brave Porthos. Besides, when were your legs known to fail? Never have
you stood so firm, so haughtily; why, you could carry a house on your
shoulders."

"At this moment," said Porthos, "I feel myself pretty active; but at
times I vacillate; I sink; and lately this phenomenon, as you say, has
occurred four times. I will not say this frightens me, but it annoys me.
Life is an agreeable thing. I have money; I have fine estates; I have
horses that I love; I have also friends that I love: D'Artagnan, Athos,
Raoul, and you."

The admirable Porthos did not even take the trouble to dissimulate in
the very presence of Aramis the rank he gave him in his friendship.
Aramis pressed his hand: "We will still live many years," said he, "to
preserve to the world such specimens of its rarest men. Trust yourself
to me, my friend; we have no reply from D'Artagnan, that is a good sign.
He must have given orders to get the vessels together and clear the
seas. On my part I have just issued directions that a bark should be
rolled on rollers to the mouth of the great cavern of Locmaria, which
you know, where we have so often lain in wait for the foxes."

"Yes, and which terminates at the little creek by a trench where we
discovered the day that splendid fox escaped that way."

"Precisely. In case of misfortunes, a bark is to be concealed for us in
that cavern; indeed, it must be there by this time. We will wait for a
favorable moment, and during the night we will go to sea!"

"That is a grand idea. What shall we gain by it?"

"We shall gain this--nobody knows that grotto, or rather its issue,
except ourselves and two or three hunters of the island; we shall gain
this--that if the island is occupied, the scouts, seeing no bark upon
the shore, will never imagine we can escape, and will cease to watch."

"I understand."

"Well! that weakness in the legs?"

"