in the chateau!"

"They may say so--but we need not believe them!" returned his companion.

"Ah, bah! I would believe or not believe anything, so long as it brought
us a good meal! How long before we reach this village, comrade?"

"Till nightfall. We would not have Marigny watch our coming. This time
we will make sure of the scoundrel."

Rosette, standing hidden behind the hedge, clenched her hands tightly at
the word. She would have given much to have flung it back at the man,
but prudence suggested it would be better to be discreet and help
Marigny. She turned and ran along under the hedge, and away back to
where she had left her little flock, her bare feet falling noiselessly
on the damp ground.

"Ah, Gegi!" she panted, flinging herself beside the yellow mongrel, "the
soldiers are very near, and they are going to surprise my beloved papa
de Marigny. What must we do, Gegi, you and I, to save him?"

Gegi rolled sharply on to his back and lay staring up at the skies as if
he was considering the question. Rosette rested her chin on her drawn-up
knees and thought fiercely. She knew in what direction lay the chateau
of La Plastiere, and she knew that to reach it she must cross the
countryside, and cross, too, in full view of the soldiers below; or
else--and that was the shorter way--go along the road by which they
encamped.

Rosette frowned. If they spied her skulking in the distance, they would
probably conclude she carried a message that might be valuable to them
and pursue her. If she walked right through them? Bah! Would they know
it was Rosette--Rosette, for whose capture a fine reward would be given?

She did not look much like an aristocrat's child, she thought, glancing
at her bare brown legs and feet, and her stained, torn blue frock. Her
dark, matted curls were covered with a crimson woollen cap--her every
garment would have been suitable for a peasant child's wear; and Rosette
was conscious that her size was more like that of a child of seven than
that of one of twelve. She had passed unknown through many
soldiers--would these have a more certain knowledge of her?

[Sidenote: "How am I to Settle it?"]

"Oh, Gegi!" she sighed; "how am I to settle it?"

Gegi wagged his tail rapidly and encouragingly, but offered no further
help.

If she went across country the way was longer far, and there was a big
risk. If she went near those soldiers and was known, why, risk would
become a certainty. That Death w