not over? Has destiny not accepted the
issue which I selected?"

Raymonde turned round, looking very anxious.

"Here comes Cesarine. She's running."

The exciseman's wife was hurrying from the farm as fast as she could.
Lupin rushed up to her:

"What is it? What has happened? Speak!"

Choking, quite out of breath, Cesarine stuttered:

"A man--I saw a man this morning!

"A man--I saw a man in the sitting-room."

"The Englishman of this morning?"

"Yes--but in a different disguise."

"Did he see you?"

"No. He saw your mother. Mme. Valmeras caught him as he was just going
away."

"Well?"

"He told her that he was looking for Louis Valmeras, that he was a
friend of yours."

"Then?"

"The madame said that her son had gone abroad--for years."

"And he went away?"

"No, he made signs through the window that overlooks the plain--as if
he were calling to some one."

Lupin seemed to hesitate. A loud cry tore the air. Raymonde moaned:

"It's your mother--I recognize--"

He flung himself upon her and, dragging her away, in a burst of fierce
passion:

"Come--let us fly--you first."

But, suddenly, he stopped, distraught, overcome:

"No, I can't do it--it's too awful. Forgive me--Raymonde--that poor
woman down there--Stay here. Beautrelet, don't leave her."

He darted along the slope that surrounds the farm, turned and followed
it, at a run, till he came to the gate that opens on the plain.

Raymonde, whom Beautrelet had been unable to hold back, arrived almost
as soon as he did; and Beautrelet, hiding behind the trees, saw, in the
lonely walk that led from the farm to the gate, three men, of whom one,
the tallest, went ahead, while the two others were holding by the arms
a woman who tried to resist and who uttered moans of pain.

The daylight was beginning to fade. Nevertheless, Beautrelet recognized
Holmlock Shears. The woman seemed of a certain age. Her livid features
were set in a frame of white hair.

They all four came up.

They reached the gate. Shears opened one of the folding leaves.

Then Lupin strode forward and stood in front of him.

The encounter appeared all the more terrible inasmuch as it was silent,
almost solemn.

For long moments, the two enemies took each other's measure with their
eyes. An equal hatred distorted the features of both of them. Neither
moved.

Then Lupin spoke, in a voice of terrifying calmness:

"Tell your men to leave that woman alone."

"No."

I