f amused, as if to say, "That is how I can treat those who
thwart my will," and to ridicule my wonder at his fury and strength.

I turned with a look of pity toward the victim of his anger. At that
moment the Count de Lavardin entered the court-yard, and his glance
followed mine. Having seen what I saw, he looked protestingly at the
Captain.

"The brute was rebellious," said Ferragant.

"But one doesn't run across such dogs every day," complained the Count.

"The rarest dog shall not defy me," was the cool answer.

"That's all very well, if it had been your own dog," said the Count,
still peevish.

"Oh, as to that, we are quits now. Your dog to-day pays for my man you
killed last week."

"Pish, it's easy enough to find rascals like that by the score. Not so,
dogs like this. Well, talking won't make him live again--Good morning,
Monsieur. Where is your comrade, Monsieur de Pepicot?"

I could only answer that on waking I had been disappointed of seeing
either Monsieur de Pepicot or his baggage. "Nor have I beheld him since,
though I have been looking about."

"That is very strange,--that he should take his baggage from the room,"
said the Count, exchanging a look of surprise with the Captain. He then
called two servants and gave them orders quietly, which must have been
to search the house and grounds for Monsieur de Pepicot. As we returned
to the hall, the Count questioned me, watching me sharply the while. I
was perfectly safe in telling the literal truth, though not all of it:
how Monsieur de Pepicot was a stranger to me, how I had never spoken to
him before yesterday, how I knew nothing of his business, and so forth.
Of course I said nothing of his midnight walk or of having conversed
with him at all after going to bed. The Count's mystification and
annoyance were manifest, the more so when, after some time, the servants
returned to say that the missing man could not be found. When he had
heard their report, the Count was very angry.

"Name of the devil, then, how did he get out? There is treachery
somewhere, and somebody shall pay for it," he screeched, and then
despatched a man to the cabaret to see if Monsieur de Pepicot had taken
his horse away. The man came back saying the horse was gone, but nobody
had seen the owner take it.

"It is certainly odd that the gentleman should depart secretly like
that, when he might have waited for day and gone civilly," said I, to
evince my simplicity.

"You are rig