would do.

'It appears to me that the burden is with you,' he said huskily; 'but
for my part I am satisfied.'

'Very well,' I said, 'I take the burden. Permit me to apologise for
having caused you to strip unnecessarily. Fortunately the sun is
shining.'

'Yes,' he said gloomily. And he took his clothes from the sundial and
began to put them on. He had expressed himself satisfied, but I knew
that he was feeling very ill-satisfied, indeed, with himself; and I was
not surprised when he presently said abruptly and almost rudely, 'There
is one thing that I think we must settle here.'

'Yes?' I said. 'What is that?'

'Our positions,' he blurted out, 'Or we shall cross one another again
within the hour.'

'Umph! I am not quite sure that I understand,' I said.

'That is precisely what I don't do--understand!' he retorted, in a tone
of surly triumph. 'Before I came on this duty, I was told that there was
a gentleman here, bearing sealed orders from the Cardinal to arrest M.
de Cocheforet; and I was instructed to avoid collision with him so far
as might be possible. At first I took you for the gentleman. But the
plague take me if I understand the matter now.'

'Why not?' I said coldly.

'Because--well, the question is in a nutshell!' he answered impetuously.
'Are you here on behalf of Madame de Cocheforet, to shield her husband?
Or are you here to arrest him? That is what I do not understand, M. de
Berault.'

'If you mean, am I the Cardinal's agent--I am!' I answered sternly.

'To arrest M. de Cocheforet?'

'To arrest M. de Cocheforet.'

'Well--you surprise me,' he said.

Only that; but he spoke so drily that I felt the blood rush to my face.

'Take care, Monsieur,' I said severely. 'Do not presume too far on the
inconvenience to which your death might put me.'

He shrugged his shoulders.

'No offence,' he said. 'But you do not seem, M. de Berault, to
comprehend the difficulty. If we do not settle things now, we shall be
bickering twenty times a day.'

'Well, what do you want?' I asked impatiently.

'Simply to know how you are going to proceed. So that our plans may not
clash.'

'But surely, M. le Capitaine, that is my affair,' I said.

'The clashing?' he answered bitterly. Then he waved aside my wrath
'Pardon,' he said, 'the point is simply this. How do you propose to find
him if he is here?'

'That again is my affair,' I answered. He threw up his hands in despair;
but in a moment his place was ta