Part 29 (2/2)

In this case, too, he had been prepared, but not for the want of trust which had brought on disobedience akin to disloyalty That absolutely unforeseen eventuality had changed Blakeney's usual irresponsible gaiety into a consciousness of the inevitable, of the inexorable decrees of Fate

With an anxious sigh, Sir Andrew turned away from his chief and went back to the spinney to select for his own purpose one of the three horses which Hastings and Tony had unavoidably left behind

”And you, Blakeney--hoill you go back to that awful Paris?” he said, when he had made his choice and was once more back beside Percy

”I don't know yet,” replied Blakeney, ”but it would not be safe to ride

I'll reach one of the gates on this side of the city and contrive to slip in somehow I have a certificate of safety in my pocket in case I need it

”We'll leave the horses here,” he said presently, whilst he was helping Sir Andrew to put the horse in the shafts of the coal-cart; ”they cannot coht steal them, in order to escape from those vile brutes in the city If so, God speed him, say I I'll compensate my friend the farmer of St Gerood-bye, ht, if possible, you shall hear direct news of me--if not, then to-uard you!”

”God guard you, Blakeney!” said Sir Andrew fervently

He juathered up the reins His heart was heavy as lead, and a strangethe last diloo almost weirdly erect and defiant, his head thrown back, and his kind, lazy eyes watching the final departure of his most faithful comrade and friend

CHAPTER XXII OF THAT THERE COULD BE NO QUESTION

Blakeney had er than two or three days in any of these It was not difficult for a single , even in these most troublous times, and in any quarter of Paris, provided the rent--out of all proportion to the coly and in advance

Eration and, above all, the enorhteen reat city, and those who had roo they were not in danger of being worried by the committees of their section

The laws framed by these sa or apartive notice at the bureau of their individual sections of the advent of new lodgers, together with a description of the personal appearance of such lodgers, and an indication of their presuin of twenty-four hours, which could on pressure be extended to forty-eight, and, therefore, any one could obtain shelter for forty-eight hours, and have no questions asked, provided he or she illing to pay the exorbitant sum usually asked under the circu what lodgings he wanted when he once more found himself inside Paris at soht of Hastings and Tony speeding on towards Mantes with the royal child safely held in Hastings' arms had kept his spirits buoyant and caused hiet the terrible peril in which Aroism had placed them both

Blakeney was a man of abnormal physique and iron nerve, else he could never have endured the fatigues of the past twenty-four hours, froan to play his part of furniture-remover at the Temple, to that when at last on Monday at noon he succeeded in persuading the sergeant at the Maillot gate that he was an honest stone at Neuilly, as come to Paris in search of work

After that h he would never have adry and weary, he turned into an unpretentious eating-house and ordered some dinner The place when he entered was occupied mostly by labourers and workri driven about for hours in a laundry-cart and in a coal-cart, and having walked twelve kilo a sleeping child in his arms

Thus, Sir Percy Blakeney, Bart, the friend and companion of the Prince of Wales, the most fastidious fop the salons of London and Bath had ever seen, was in no way distinguishable outwardly from the tattered, half-starved, dirty, and out-at-elbows products of this fraternising and equalising Republic

He was so hungry that the ill-cooked, badly-served ly more interested in boiled beef than in the conversation that went on around hi adventurer that he was if he did not all the while keep his ears open for any fragment of news that the desultory talk of his fellow-diners was likely to yield to him

Politics were, of course, discussed; the tyranny of the sections, the slavery that this free Republic had brought on its citizens The naes of the day were all mentioned in turns Focquier-Tinville, Santerre, Danton, Robespierre Heron and his sleuth-hounds were spoken of with execrations quickly suppressed, but of little Capet not one word

Blakeney could not help but infer that Chauvelin, Heron and the co the escape of the child a secret for as long as they could

He could hear nothing of Armand's fate, of course The arrest--if arrest there had been--was not like to be bruited abroad just now Blakeney having last seen Ar the Siallowed a certainspied on, so that he ht of that all weariness seemed to vanish froether, and once again the light of irresponsible gaiety danced in his eyes

He had been in as tight a corner as this before now; at Boulogne his beautiful Marguerite had been used as a decoy, and twenty-four hours later he had held her in his arms on board his yacht the Day-Dreae:

”Those d--d ot reater odds than before, but Blakeney had no fear that they would prove overwhel

There was in life but one odd that was overwhel, and that was treachery