Jacqueline flitted to and fro. Dubois swore
roundly.

"It is my fault, _monsieur_," he said. "I should have known. I should
have accompanied you home. It would be a tough customer who would
venture to meddle with Alfred Dubois! But I was anxious to get to the
telegraph office to inform M. Danton of your coming. And I suspected
something, too, for I knew that Leroux had something more in his mind
than simply to convey some of his men to St. Boniface at such expense.

"So as soon as I had finished telegraphing I hurried home and bade
adieu to Marie and the little Madeline and the two nephews, and then I
came back to the boat--and that part I shall tell you later, for
_mademoiselle_ knows nothing of the plot against her, and has been
greatly distressed for you. So it shall be understood that you fell
down and hurt your head on the ice--eh?"

I agreed to this. "But what did she think?" I asked, as Jacqueline
went back for some more water.

"That you had sent her to the _Sainte-Vierge_," he answered, "and that
you were to follow her here--as you did. Even now the nephews are
searching the lower town for you."

"But if I had not come before nine?"

"I should have waited all night, _monsieur_, even though I had lost my
post for it," he said explosively, and I reached out and gripped his
hand.

"You may not have seen the baggage here," continued the captain slyly.

I glanced round me. Upon the floor stood the two suit-cases, which
should have been in our rooms in the chateau, and Jacqueline was busily
tearing up some filmy material in hers for bandages.

I looked at Dubois in astonishment.

"Ah, _monsieur_, I sent for those," he said, "and paid your bill also.
When I fight Simon Leroux I do not do things by halves. You see,
_monsieur_, wise though he is, there are other minds equal to his own,
and since he killed my brother, I----"

Here he nearly broke down, and I looked discreetly away.

"One question of curiosity, _monsieur_, if it is permissible," he said
a little later. "Why does Leroux wish so much to stop your marriage
with _mademoiselle_ that he is ready to stoop to assassination and
kidnapping?"

My heart felt very warm toward the good man. I knew how that loose end
in the romance that he had built up troubled him. And, though I hardly
knew myself, I must give him some satisfactory solution of his problem.

"Because he is himself in love with her," I said.

The captain clenched his fis