De Lorgnac had been too quick for him, and had forced him to fight at
the very entrance of his lair. Covered with the dust of his reckless
ride, his gay hunting dress torn and soiled, bareheaded, and with the
blood streaming from a wound in his face, where De Lorgnac had touched
him, Simon stood, despair and hate in his look. Yet he fought fiercely
for his life; but he had met his equal with the sword, and, doing his
worst, could but hold on the defence and no more. He saw us as we
came. He saw too the hundred faces of the mob--the mob he had once
himself led to a deed of shame--glaring, shouting, and yelling at him
through the open archway, though not one dared to pass the entrance.
Escape was hopeless, and his pale face grew paler still, as with an
oath he wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand, and
screamed out to De Lorgnac:

"Stand aside, man! I have no quarrel with you! Stand back, or----"
But the thrust he made was parried with a wrist as sure as his own, and
it was only his own rare skill of fence that saved him from the riposte.

After all, he was blood of my blood, and it was not my hand that should
slay him. The thought came to me sudden and insistent, as I put my
blade beside that of De Lorgnac, and covering him with my point, saw
the grey despair in his eyes.

"Simon," I called out, "put down your sword. I promise your life!"

He spat at me in his fury, the fury of a beast, and I was a lost man if
De Lorgnac had not stayed his hand.

"God!" he burst out, "if there were only you!"

At my look--a glance that almost cost me my life--De Lorgnac stepped
back, lowering his point, and our swords crossed. Again parrying a
thrust, I once more offered Simon his life, only to meet with the same
refusal. There was no help for it! A life stood on the issue, to
which his was nothing to me, and setting my teeth I made at him. The
fury of my attack almost lost me the game, and I heard Le Brusquet's
low warning:

"Have a care. Remember!"

Suddenly Simon, who had gained a slight advantage, called out: "I
accept. I have lost." And he half raised his blade. I gave back,
lowering my point as I did so, and at that moment the door opened, and
with a laugh Simon sprang back, and vanished from our sight.

So quick, so instant was his retreat, that for a second I hardly
realised it. But someone else had. All unnoticed by us De Ganache had
been crouching in the shadow of the vaulted passag