elf at my feet, and
was kissing my hand.

"God bless you, Geoffrey Benteen! God bless you!" she sobbed
impulsively; and then from out the dense shadows of the farther wall,
solemnly as though he stood at altar service, the watchful Capuchin
said:

"Amen!"

CHAPTER II

A PERILOUS VENTURE

Any call to action, of either hazard or pleasure, steadies my nerves.
To realize necessity for doing renders me a new man, clear of brain,
quick of decision. Possibly this comes from that active life I have
always led in the open. Be the cause what it may, I was the first to
recover speech.

"I hope to show myself worthy your trust, Madame," I said somewhat
stiffly, for it hurt to realize that this emotion arose from her
husband's peril. "At best I am only an adventurer, and rely upon those
means with which life upon the border renders me familiar. Such may
prove useless where I have soldiers of skill to deal with. However, we
have need of these minutes flying past so rapidly; they might be put to
better use than tears, or words of gratitude."

She looked upward at me with wet eyes.

"You are right; I am a child, it seems. Tell me your desire, and I
will endeavor to act the woman."

"First, I must comprehend more clearly the nature of the work before
me. The Chevalier de Noyan is already under sentence of death; the
hour of execution to-morrow at sunrise?"

She bent her head in quiet acquiescence, her anxious eyes never leaving
my face.

"It is now already approaching noon, leaving us barely eighteen hours
in which to effect his rescue. Faith! 't is short space for action."

I glanced uneasily aside at the silently observant priest, now
standing, a slender gray figure, close beside the door. He was not of
an Order I greatly loved.

"You need have no fear," she exclaimed, hastily interpreting my
thought. "Father Petreni can be fully trusted. He is more than my
religious confessor; he has been my friend from childhood."

"Yes, Monsieur," he interposed sadly, yet with a grave smile lighting
his thin white face. "I shall be able to accomplish little in your
aid, for my trade is not that of arms, yet, within my physical
limitations, I am freely at your service."

"That is well," I responded heartily, words and tone yielding me fresh
confidence in the man. "This is likely to prove a night when comrades
will need to know each other. Now a few questions, after which I will
look over the ground before a