Part 15 (1/2)

And there he stood under the lintel of the door, the iant hand of an entire nation--the overns of its Treasury--the , hot on the scent--for whoe and relentless reprisals were constantly being spread

Was he unconscious of it, or merely careless? His closest friend, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, could not say Certain it is that, as he now appeared before Armand, picturesque as ever in perfectly tailored clothes, with priceless lace at throat and wrists, his slender fingers holding an enamelled snuff-box and a handkerchief of delicate cambric, his whole personality that of a dandy rather than a man of action, it seemed impossible to connect hiloith enthusiasnetisht that now and then, swift as su, flashed out from the depths of the blue eyes usually veiled by heavy, lazy lids, the sudden tightening of fir of the square jahich in a moment--but only for the space of a second--transformed the entire face, and revealed the born leader of men

Just now there was none of that in the debonnair, easy-going man of the world who advanced to rasp his hand, slightly troubled with remorse, no doubt, at the recollection of his adventure of to-day It almost seemed to him that from beneath his half-closed lids Blakeney had shot a quick inquiring glance upon hi man's soul from within, and to reveal it, naked, to his friend

It was all over in a ht that mayhap his conscience had played hi apparent in hie his secret just yet

”I am rather late, I fear,” he said ”I wandered about the streets in the late afternoon and lost ”

They all pulled chairs closely round the fire, except Blakeney, who preferred to stand He waited awhile until they were all comfortably settled, and all ready to listen, then:

”It is about the Dauphin,” he said abruptly without further preauessed it, alht theo Sir Andrew Ffoulkes had left his young wife because of that, and Arht to join hands in this noble work Blakeney had not left France for over three months now Backwards and forwards between Paris, or Nantes, or Orleans to the coast, where his friends would meet him to receive those unfortunates whom one man's whole-hearted devotion had rescued from death; backwards and forwards into the very hearts of those cities wherein an aruillotine was stretching out her arms to catch the foolhardy adventurer

Noas about the Dauphin They all waited, breathless and eager, the fire of a noble enthusias in their hearts They waited in silence, their eyes fixed on the leader, lest one single word fronetism of the man was apparent now As he held these four men at this moment, he could have held a crowd The man of the world--the fastidious dandy--had shed his mask; there stood the leader, caler that had ever encoer fully in the face, not striving to belittle it or to exaggerate it, but weighing it in the balance hat there was to accomplish: the rescue of a martyred, innocent child fro his very soul even , I think, is prepared,” resuht pause ”The Simons have been summarily dismissed; I learned that to-day

They remove from the Temple on Sunday next, the nineteenth Obviously that is the one day most likely to help us in our operations As far as I am concerned, I cannot make any hard-and-fast plans Chance at the last moment will have to dictate But from every one of you Imy directions implicitly that we can even remotely hope to succeed”

He crossed and recrossed the rooain in his walk in front of a largeupon the wall, his tall figure erect, his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed before hih the walls of this squalid rooh the gri far ahere the descendant of an hundred kings lived at the mercy of human fiends orked for his abasement

The man's face noas that of a seer and a visionary; the fire carved in stone--the statue of heart-whole devotion, with the self-i sternly to follow, there where lurked danger and death

”The way, I think, in which we could best succeed would be this,” he resue of the table and directly facing his four friends The light from the lamp which stood upon the table behind hierly upon him, but he hiainst the light-coloured map on the wall beyond

”I remain here, of course, until Sunday,” he said, ”and will closely watch reatest a and take possession of the child I shall, of course choose the moment when the Simons are actually on thein at about the same time God alone knows,” he added earnestly, ”how I shall contrive to get possession of the child; at the moment I am just as much in the dark about that as you are”

He paused a rave face seemed flooded with sunshi+ne, a kind of lazyall trace of solehtly, ”on one point I a Louis XVII will coly house in my company next Sunday, the nineteenth day of January in this year of grace seventeen hundred and ninety-four; and this, too, do I know--that those uards shall not lay hands onSo I pray you, luh; ”you'll need all your wits about you to help us in our undertaking”

”What do you wishman simply

”In one moment I will tell you I want you all to understand the situation first The child will be out of the Temple on Sunday, but at what hour I know not The later it will be the better would it suitwith any chance of safety Here we ; the child is far better off as he is now than he would be if he were dragged back after an abortive atteht, between nine and ten o'clock, I can arrange to get hiate, and that is where I want you, Ffoulkes, and you, Tony, to be, with soenuity will suggest

Here are a few certificates of safety; I have beena collection of them for some time, as they are always useful”

He dived into the wide pocket of his coat and drew forth a nuered documents of the usual pattern which the Committee of General Security delivered to the free citizens of the new republic, and without which no one could enter or leave any town or country colanced at them and handed them over to Ffoulkes

”Choose your own identity for the occasion, htly; ”and you too, Tony You may be stonemasons or coal-carriers, chi as you look sufficiently gri as you can procure a cart without arousing suspicions, and can wait for me punctually at the appointed spot”

Ffoulkes turned over the cards, and with a laugh handed theentlemen discussed for awhile the respective ainst that of a coal-carrier

”You can carry ested Blakeney; ”and if the soot gets into your eyes it does not make them smart like coal does”

”But soot adheres ued Tony soleet a bath for at least a week afterwards”

”Certainly you won't, you sybarite!” asserted Sir Percy with a laugh