p at the Inn window he saw
that the dim glow in the distant window was suddenly occulted, and then
as suddenly became visible again. It was plain to Lagardere that some
one had entered the room and had looked out of the window for an instant.
Therefore some one had already discovered his absence, probably the maid
of the Inn. No doubt she would send word to the bravos, and it might very
well chance that the bravos would not think the odds in their favor
sufficiently good when they knew that they had to deal with Henri de
Lagardere as well as with Louis de Nevers.

Lagardere whistled cheerfully the lilt of a drinking-song as he reflected
thus, for he considered himself quite equal to handling the whole batch
of rascallions if only he had a wall of some kind to back him. He was
fondling the possibility that they had given up the whole business in
disgust at his interruption of their purpose, when it suddenly stabbed
his fancy that they might ambush Nevers on his way. But he dismissed that
fear instantly. He hoped and believed that if they knew he was free they
would give him the first chance to kill Nevers for them. In any case, all
that he could do was to wait patiently where he was and see what the
creeping minutes brought.

The moat of Caylus did not appear to him to be, under the existing
conditions, by any means the ideal field for a duel. In the darkness it
seemed to him to be more happily adapted for a game of blindman's-buff.
There was a half-filled hay-cart in the moat, and bundles of hay were
scattered hither and thither on the ground and littered the place
confusingly. Lagardere began to busy himself in clearing some of this hay
out of the way, so as to afford an untroubled space for the coming
combat. While he was thus engaged he heard for the first time a faint
sound come from the direction of the castle. It was the sound of a door
being turned cautiously upon its hinges. Crouching in the shadow of the
rock down which he had lately descended, Lagardere looked round and saw
dimly two forms emerge like shadows from the very side of the castle. The
new-comers had come forth from a little postern that gave onto the moat,
to which they descended by some narrow steps cut in the rock, and they
now walked a little way slowly into the darkness. Lagardere, all
watchfulness, could hear one of the shadows say to the other, "This way,
monseigneur," and the word "monseigneur" made him wonder. Was he going to
be brought fa