dred
feet of the shore."

"Well, and then?"

"Why, and then, monseigneur, as there was a little wind from the
southwest, the boat drifted into the sands of Sainte-Marguerite's."

"Oh!--but the two travelers?"

"Bah! you need not be uneasy about them! It was pretty plain that one
was the devil, and protected the other; for when we recovered the boat,
after she got afloat again, instead of finding these two creatures
injured by the shock, we found nothing, not even the carriage or the
case."

"Very strange! very strange!" repeated the comte. "But since that, what
have you done, my friend?"

"I made my complaint to the governor of Sainte-Marguerite's, who brought
my finger under my nose by telling me if I plagued him with such silly
stories he would have me flogged."

"What! did the governor say so?"

"Yes, monsieur; and yet my boat was injured, seriously injured, for the
prow is left upon the point of Sainte-Marguerite's, and the carpenter
asks a hundred and twenty livres to repair it."

"Very well," replied Raoul; "you will be exempted from the service. Go."

"We will go to Sainte-Marguerite's, shall we?" said the comte to
Bragelonne, as the man walked away.

"Yes, monsieur, for there is something to be cleared up; that man does
not seem to me to have told the truth."

"Nor to me neither, Raoul. The story of the masked man and the carriage
having disappeared, may be told to conceal some violence these fellows
have committed upon their passenger in the open sea, to punish him for
his persistence in embarking."

"I formed the same suspicion; the carriage was more likely to contain
property than a man."

"We shall see to that, Raoul. This gentleman very much resembles
D'Artagnan; I recognize his mode of proceeding. Alas! we are no longer
the young invincibles of former days. Who knows whether the hatchet or
the iron bar of this miserable coaster has not succeeded in doing that
which the best blades of Europe, balls, and bullets, have not been able
to do in forty years?"

That same day they set out for Sainte-Marguerite's, on board a
chasse-maree come from Toulon under orders. The impression they felt on
landing was a singularly pleasing one. The isle was full of flowers and
fruits. In its cultivated part it served as a garden for the governor.
Orange, pomegranate, and fig trees bent beneath the weight of their
golden or purple fruits. All around this garden, in the uncultivated
parts, the red partridges