Part 123 (1/2)
”No”
”Do you not suspect?”
”No; all I can say is that he is a man who has studied all the systems, and who appears to me to have stopped at the best”
”Hush!+” said Porthos; ”consider nan”
”In truth,” replied the musketeer, ”can it be you--who--oh!”
”Pray--ined, traced, and combined between these bastions, these redans, these curtains, these half- you--”
”You who have built that lunette with its retiring angles and its salient edges?”
”My friend--”
”You who have given that inclination to the openings of your embrasures, by means of which you so effectively protect the uns?”
”Eh! mon Dieu! yes”
”Oh! Porthos, Porthos! I must bon before you--I must admire you!
But you have always concealed froenius I hope, my dear friend, you will showinal sketch, nan towards the stone that served him for a table, and upon which the plan was spread At the foot of the plan ritten, in the for of which we have already had occasion to speak:--
”Instead of le, as has been done to this tion, this polygon having the advantage of offering les than the quadrilateral one Every side of your hexagon, of which you will deterth in proportion to the dimensions taken upon the place, will be divided into two parts, and upon the middle point you will elevate a perpendicular towards the center of the polygon, which will equal in length the sixth part of the side By the extreonals, which will cut the perpendicular These will form the precise lines of your defense”
”The devil!” said D'Artagnan, stopping at this point of the demonstration; ”why, this is a complete system, Porthos”
”Entirely,” said Porthos ”Continue”
”No; I have read enough of it; but, since it is you, my dear Porthos, who direct the works, what need have you of setting down your syste?”
”Oh! my dear friend, death!”
”How! death?”
”Why, we are all nan; ”you have a reply for everything, my friend” And he replaced the plan upon the stone
But however short the tinan had been able to distinguish, under the enor of Porthos, a much more delicate hand, which reminded him of certain letters to Marie Michon, hich he had been acquainted in his youth Only the India-rubber had passed and repassed so often over this writing that it ht have escaped a less practiced eye than that of our nan
”And now you know all that you want to know, do you not?” said Porthos, wheeling about
”Mordioux! yes, only do me one last favor, dear friend!”
”Speak, I am master here”