hen?" asked the musketeer.

"Monsieur, they come from Nantes and Paimboeuf."

"Where are they going, then?"

"Monsieur, to Belle-Isle."

"Ah! ah!" said D'Artagnan, in the same tone he had assumed to tell
the printer that his character interested him; "are they building at
Belle-Isle, then?"

"Why, yes, monsieur, M. Fouquet has the walls of the castle repaired
every year."

"It is in ruins, then?"

"It is old."

"Thank you."

"The fact is," said D'Artagnan to himself, "nothing is more natural;
every proprietor has a right to repair his own property. It would be
like telling me I was fortifying the Image-de-Notre-Dame, when I was
simply obliged to make repairs. In good truth, I believe false reports
have been made to his majesty, and he is very likely to be in the
wrong."

"You must confess," continued he then, aloud, and addressing the
fisherman--for his part of a suspicious man was imposed upon him by the
object even of his mission--"you must confess, my dear monsieur, that
these stones travel in a very curious fashion."

"How so?" said the fisherman.

"They come from Nantes or Paimboeuf by the Loire, do they not?"

"With the tide."

"That is convenient,--I don't say it is not; but why do they not go
straight from Saint-Nazaire to Belle-Isle?"

"Eh! because the _chalands_ (barges) are fresh-water boats, and take the
sea badly," replied the fisherman.

"That is not sufficient reason."

"Pardon me, monsieur, one may see that you have never been a sailor,"
added the fisherman, not without a sort of disdain.

"Explain to me, if you please, my good man. It appears to me that to
come from Paimboeuf to Piriac, and go from Piriac to Belle-Isle, is as
if we went from Roche-Bernard to Nantes, and from Nantes to Piriac."

"By water that would be the nearest way," replied the fisherman
imperturbably.

"But there is an elbow?"

The fisherman shook his head.

"The shortest road from one place to another is a straight line,"
continued D'Artagnan.

"You forget the tide, monsieur."

"Well! take the tide."

"And the wind."

"Well, and the wind."

"Without doubt; the current of the Loire carries barks almost as far as
Croisic. If they want to lie by a little, or to refresh the crew, they
come to Piriac along the coast; from Piriac they find another inverse
current, which carries them to the Isle-Dumal, two leagues and a half."

"Granted."

"There the current of the Vilaine throws them upon another