begotten. There was so
momentous, so alarmingly warning a look on his face as he whispered the
one word "Monseigneur!" that clearly if danger there was to me it was
not from him.

"What the devil--" I began.

But at the sound of my voice the alarm grew in his eyes.

"Sh!" he whispered, his finger on his lips. "Be silent, monseigneur, for
Heaven's sake!"

Very softly he closed the door; softly, yet painfully, he hobbled
forward to my side.

"There is a plot to murder you, monseigneur," he whispered.

"What! Here at Blagnac?"

He nodded fearfully.

"Bah!" I laughed. "You rave, man. Who was to know that I was to come
this way? And who is there to plot against my life?"

"Monsieur de Saint-Eustache." he answered.

"And for the rest, as to expecting you here, they did not, but they
were prepared against the remote chance of your coming. From what I have
gathered, there is not a hostelry betwixt this and Lavedan at which
the Chevalier has not left his cutthroats with the promise of enormous
reward to the men who shall kill you."

I caught my breath at that. My doubts vanished.

"Tell me what you know," said I. "Be brief."

Thereupon this faithful dog, whom I had so sorely beaten but four nights
ago, told me how, upon finding himself able to walk once more, he had
gone to seek me out, that he might implore me to forgive him and not
cast him off altogether, after a lifetime spent in the service of my
father and of myself.

He had discovered from Monsieur de Castelroux that I was gone to
Lavedan, and he determined to follow me thither. He had no horse and
little money, and so he had set out afoot that very day, and dragged
himself as far as Blagnac, where, however, his strength had given out,
and he was forced to halt. A providence it seemed that this had
so befallen. For here at the Etoile he had that evening overheard
Saint-Eustache in conversation with those two bravi below stairs. It
would seem from what he had said that at every hostelry from Grenade to
Toulouse--at which it was conceivable that I might spend the night--the
Chevalier had made a similar provision.

At Blagnac, if I got so far without halting, I must arrive very late,
and therefore the Chevalier had bidden his men await me until daylight.
He did not believe, however, that I should travel so far, for he had
seen to it that I should find no horses at the posthouses. But it was
just possible that I might, nevertheless, push on, and Saint-Eus