haps--"

"There is no brandy in Thorn," said D'Arragon, turning towards the
table. "There is only coffee."

He busied himself with the cups, and did not look at Desiree when he
spoke again.

"I have secured two horses," he said, "to enable you to proceed at once,
if you are able to. But if you would rather rest here to-day--"

"Let us go on at once," interrupted Desiree hastily.

Barlasch, crouching against the stove, glanced from one to the other
beneath his heavy brows, wondering, perhaps, why they avoided looking at
each other.

"You will wait here," said D'Arragon, turning towards him, "until--until
I return."

"Yes," was the answer. "I will lie on the floor here and sleep. I have
had enough. I--"

Louis left the room to give the necessary orders. When he returned in a
few minutes, Barlasch was asleep on the floor, and Desiree had tied on
her hood again, which concealed her face. He drank a cup of coffee and
ate some dry bread absent-mindedly, in silence.

The sound of bells, feebly heard through the double windows, told them
that the horses were being harnessed.

"Are you ready?" asked D'Arragon, who had not sat down; and in response,
Desiree, standing near the stove, went towards the door, which he held
open for her to pass out. As she passed him, she glanced at his face,
and winced.

In the sleigh she looked up at him as if expecting him to speak. He was
looking straight in front of him. There was, after all, nothing to be
said. She could see his steady eyes between his high collar and the fur
cap. They were hard and unflinching. The road was level now, and the
snow beaten to a gleaming track like ice. D'Arragon put the horses to a
gallop at the town gate, and kept them at it.

In half an hour he turned towards her and pointed with his whip to a
roof half hidden by some thin pines.

"That is the inn," he said.

In the inn yard he indicated with his whip two travelling-carriages
standing side by side.

"Colonel Darragon is here?" he said to the cringing Jew who came to meet
them; and the innkeeper led the way upstairs. The house was a miserable
one, evil-smelling, sordid. The Jew pointed to a door, and, cringing
again, left them.

Desiree made a gesture telling Louis to go in first, which he did at
once. The room was littered with trunks and cases. All the treasure had
been brought into the sick man's chamber for greater safety.

On a narrow bed near the window a man lay huddled on his side.