Part 12 (1/2)

As he spoke the door opened, and Christine entered.

”I rejoice to see you nearly yourself again. You have been most foully used.”

Her face just then was like the face that had looked at him in his dreams. Herrick bowed somewhat stiffly and unsteadily over the hand she held out to him, for the ache was still in his limbs.

”Truly, mademoiselle, my service had come near to ending before it was well begun. Death has been hunting me more busily than I care for.”

”What of the Duke?”

”He is alive,” Herrick answered. ”Mine is a tale you may well find difficult to believe.”

”For unbelief, circ.u.mstances must be my excuse,” she answered after a moment's pause. ”There is yet time for repentance. Sit on this stool--you are still weak, I see--and tell us the story.”

Herrick told what had happened from the moment Lemasle had made his dash across the clearing, repeated even the old hag's doggerel rhyme, and his own last consciousness of a star above him which pointed toward home.

”These thieves did not say to whom they would take him?” Christine asked him when he had finished.

”To the enemy who would pay highest. These robbers were in no doubt which direction to go. That a big reward would be paid for the Duke's person seemed well known to them. Have none been sent to spy in the enemies' borders, since it would appear spies are so frequent in Montvilliers?”

”We have ever fought our foe openly,” she said, turning sharply from the fire by which she was standing.

”One must meet craft with craft,” Herrick answered.

”Have you no word of advice, Captain Lemasle?” she asked.

The soldier shrugged his great shoulders, and walking to the fire, kicked back a piece of smouldering peat which had fallen from its place.

”Advice doesn't trip easily to my tongue at any time, and here there are so many considerations. Had the Duke fallen into the hands of those who attacked us, he would have been a dead man by now. I take it that our present position is an improvement upon that.”

”They will certainly keep him alive,” said Herrick.

”And therefore must travel slowly,” said Christine. ”We may overtake them.”

”We are but two men, mademoiselle,” Lemasle remarked. ”To attempt the impossible is to court disaster. Besides, they have had many hours'

start, and there is no certainty where they have gone.”

Christine looked at Herrick, evidently asking his opinion.

”I should not s.h.i.+rk another desperate venture, mademoiselle,” he said, ”but there is wisdom in what Captain Lemasle says. To speak frankly, I do not know the real situation in Montvilliers well enough to give an opinion.”

”And having heard it, you might have difficulty in understanding it,”

Lemasle muttered.

”At least you know that Count Felix has plotted the death of the young Duke,” said Christine.

”That was the story which sent me to warn you,” said Herrick.

”I have not believed that tale, I hardly credit it now,” she went on, ”but we know that the Duke's life has been attempted. Maurice dead, Felix becomes Duke. Montvilliers cannot be long without a ruler.

Maurice in the hands of France or Germany is powerless; therefore this way Felix becomes Duke.”

”Would not the people strike a blow for their rightful ruler?” Herrick asked.