ot
have whelmed me like those words. Yeux-gris and his oaths! It _was_ the
duke, after all!

I could not speak. I looked I know not how. But it was dusky in the
arch.

"It sounds simple," he went on. "But, three of you as you are, you will
have trouble with Vigo. That is all. I have told you all. I must get
back before I am missed. Good luck to the enterprise."

Still I stood like a block of wood.

"Tell M. Gervais to remember me," he said, and opening the door, passed
in. I heard him lock and bolt it after him, and his footsteps hurrying
down the passageway.

Then I came to myself and sprang to the door and beat upon it furiously.
But if he heard he was afraid to respond. After a futile moment that
seemed an hour I rushed out of the arch and around to the great gate.

The grilles were closed as before, but the sentry's face, luckily, was
strange to me.

"Open! open!" I shouted, breathless. "I must see M. le Duc!"

"Who are you?" he demanded, staring.

"My name is Broux. I have news for M. le Duc. Let me in. It is a matter
of life and death."

"Why, I suppose, then, I must let you in," that good fellow answered,
drawing back the bolts. "But you must wait here till--"

The gate was open. I took base advantage of him by sliding under his arm
and shooting across the court up the steps to the house. The door stood
open, and a couple of lackeys lounged on a bench in the hall.

"M. le Duc!" I cried. "I must see him."

They jumped up, the picture of bewilderment.

"Who are you? How came you here?" cried the quicker-tongued of the two.

"The sentry opened for me. Where am I to find M. le Duc? I must see him!
I have news!"

"M. le Duc sees no one to-day," the second lackey announced pompously.

"But I must see him, I tell you," I repeated. I had completely lost what
little head I ever had; it seemed to me that if I could not see M. le
Duc on the instant I should find him weltering in his gore. "I must see
him," I cried, parrot-like. "It is a matter of life and death."

"From whom do you come?"

"That's my affair. Enough that I come with news of the highest moment.
You will be sorry if I you do not get me quickly to M. le Duc."

They looked at each other, somewhat impressed.

"I will go for M. Constant," said the one who had spoken first.

Constant was Master of the Household; M. le Duc had inherited him with
the estate and kept him in his place for old time's sake. He was old,
fussy, and self-importan