upied a suite of rooms on the first floor,
and after a timid knock at the door, it was opened by Jeanne from
within, and Maurice found himself in the presence of Crystal and of the
Duchesse and obliged at once to enter upon the explanation which, with
their first cry of surprise, they already asked of him.

"Well!" exclaimed Crystal eagerly, "what news?"

"Of the money?" murmured Maurice vaguely, who above all things was
anxious to gain time.

"Yes! the King's money!" rejoined the girl with slight impatience. "Have
you tracked the thieves? Do you know where they are? Is there any hope
of catching them?"

"None, I am afraid," he replied firmly.

Crystal gave a cry of bitter disappointment and reproach. "Then,
Maurice," she exclaimed almost involuntarily, "why are you here?"

And Mme. la Duchesse, folding her mittened hands before her, seemed
mutely to be asking the same question.

"But did you come upon the thieves at all?" continued Crystal with eager
volubility. "Where did they go to for the night? You must have come on
some traces of their passage. Oh!" she added vehemently, "you ought not
to have deserted your post like this!"

"What could I do," he murmured. "I was all alone . . . against so many.
. . ."

"You said that you would get on the track of the thieves," she urged,
"and father told you that he would speak with M. le Comte d'Artois as
soon as possible. Monsieur has promised that an armed patrol would be
sent out to you, and would be on the lookout for you on the road."

"An armed patrol would be no use. I came back on purpose to stop one
being sent."

"But why, in Heaven's name?" exclaimed the Duchesse.

"Because a troop of deserters with that traitor Victor de Marmont is
scouring the road, and . . ."

"We know that," said Crystal, "we were stopped by them last night, after
you left us. They were after the money for the usurper, who had sent
them, and I thanked God that twenty-five millions had enriched a common
thief rather than the Corsican brigand."

"Surely, Maurice," said the Duchesse with her usual tartness, "you were
not fool enough to allow the King's money to fall into that abominable
de Marmont's hands?"

"How could I help it?" now exclaimed the young man, as if driven to the
extremity of despair. "The whole thing was a huge plot beyond one man's
power to cope with. I tracked the thieves," he continued with vehemence
as eager as Crystal's, "I tracked them to a lonely hostelry off