o; and, sweeping Marcel aside, he knocked loudly.

"I came last night," I found time to say under my breath to my old
comrade before the door was opened.

The handsome secretary whom I had taken for the count stood in the
doorway looking askance at us. He knew me at once and wondered.

"You cannot enter, Vigo. M. le Duc is occupied."

He made to shut the door, but Vigo's foot was over the sill.

"Natheless, I must enter," he answered unabashed and pushed his way into
the room.

"Then you must answer for it," returned the secretary, with a scowl that
sat ill on his delicate face.

"_You_ shall answer for it if it turns out a mare's nest," said Vigo, in
a low, meaning voice to me. But I hardly heard him. I passed him and
Lucas, and flew down the long room to Monsieur.

M. le Duc was seated before a table heaped with papers. He had been
watching the scene at the door in surprise and anger. He looked at me
with a sharp frown, while the deer-hound at his feet rose on its
haunches growling.

"Roland!" I said. The dog sprang up and came to me.

"Felix Broux!" Monsieur exclaimed, with his quick, warm smile--a smile
no man in France could match for radiance.

I had no thought of kneeling, of making obeisance, of waiting permission
to speak.

"Monsieur," I cried, half choked, "there is a plot--a vile plot to
murder you!"

"Where? At St. Quentin?"

"No, Monsieur. Here in Paris. In the streets to-night, when you go to
the king."

Monsieur sprang to his feet, his hand on his sword. Lucas turned white.
Vigo swore. Monsieur cried:

"How, in God's name, know you that?"

"You have been betrayed, Monsieur. Your plan is known. You leave the
house to-night, near a quarter of eleven, to go in secret to the king.
You leave by the little door in the alley--"

"Diable!" breathed Vigo.

"They set on you on your way--three of them--to run you through before
you can draw."

"But, ventre bleu! Monsieur is not alone."

"No; he walks between you and M. Lucas."

Not one of them spoke. They stared at me as if I were something uncanny.
I, a raw country boy, disclosing a perfect knowledge of their most
intimate plans!

"How know you this?" Monsieur demanded of me. But he was not looking at
me. His keen glance went first to Lucas, then to Vigo, the two men who
had shared his confidence. The secretary cried out:

"You cannot think, Monsieur, that I betrayed you?"

Vigo said nothing. His steady eyes never left Monsieur's f