ill
not be surprised, therefore, that we have thought fit to take certain
precautions both against any little ambuscade which you may have
prepared for us, or against your making one of those daring attempts at
escape for which the noted Scarlet Pimpernel is so justly famous."

He paused, and only Heron's low chuckle of satisfaction broke the
momentary silence that followed. Blakeney made no reply. Obviously he
knew exactly what was coming. He knew Chauvelin and his ways, knew the
kind of tortuous conception that would find origin in his brain; the
moment that he saw Marguerite sitting there he must have guessed that
Chauvelin once more desired to put her precious life in the balance of
his intrigues.

"Citizen Heron is impatient, Sir Percy," resumed Chauvelin after a
while, "so I must be brief. Lady Blakeney, as well as citizen St. Just,
will accompany us on this expedition to whithersoever you may lead
us. They will be the hostages which we will hold against your own good
faith. At the slightest suspicion--a mere suspicion perhaps--that you
have played us false, at a hint that you have led us into an ambush, or
that the whole of this expedition has been but a trick on your part to
effect your own escape, or if merely our hope of finding Capet at the
end of our journey is frustrated, the lives of our two hostages belong
to us, and your friend and your wife will be summarily shot before your
eyes."

Outside the rain pattered against the window-panes, the gale whistled
mournfully among the stunted trees, but within this room not a sound
stirred the deadly stillness of the air, and yet at this moment hatred
and love, savage lust and sublime self-abnegation--the most power full
passions the heart of man can know--held three men here enchained; each
a slave to his dominant passion, each ready to stake his all for the
satisfaction of his master. Heron was the first to speak.

"Well!" he said with a fierce oath, "what are we waiting for? The
prisoner knows how he stands. Now we can go."

"One moment, citizen," interposed Chauvelin, his quiet manner
contrasting strangely with his colleague's savage mood. "You have quite
understood, Sir Percy," he continued, directly addressing the prisoner,
"the conditions under which we are all of us about to proceed on this
journey?"

"All of us?" said Blakeney slowly. "Are you taking it for granted then
that I accept your conditions and that I am prepared to proceed on the
journey?"