Part 38 (1/2)

”Yes, a road which joins the departmental highway three quarters of a mile from here.... And do you know where?”

”Where?”

”At the corner of the chateau.”

”Jerome Vignal's chateau?”

”By Jove, this is beginning to look serious! If the trail leads to the chateau and stops there, we shall know where we stand.”

The trail did continue to the chateau, as they were able to perceive after following it across the undulating fields, on which the snow lay heaped in places. The approach to the main gates had been swept, but they saw that another trail, formed by the two wheels of a vehicle, was running in the opposite direction to the village.

The sergeant rang the bell. The porter, who had also been sweeping the drive, came to the gates, with a broom in his hand. In answer to a question, the man said that M. Vignal had gone away that morning before anyone else was up and that he himself had harnessed the horse to the trap.

”In that case,” said Renine, when they had moved away, ”all we have to do is to follow the tracks of the wheels.”

”That will be no use,” said the sergeant. ”They have taken the railway.”

”At Pompignat station, where I came from? But they would have pa.s.sed through the village.”

”They have gone just the other way, because it leads to the town, where the express trains stop. The procurator-general has an office in the town. I'll telephone; and, as there's no train before eleven o'clock, all that they need do is to keep a watch at the station.”

”I think you're doing the right thing, sergeant,” said Renine, ”and I congratulate you on the way in which you have carried out your investigation.”

They parted. Renine went back to the inn in the village and sent a note to Hortense Daniel by hand:

”MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,

”I seemed to gather from your letter that, touched as always by anything that concerns the heart, you were anxious to protect the love-affair of Jerome and Natalie. Now there is every reason to suppose that these two, without consulting their fair protectress, have run away, after throwing Mathias de Gorne down a well.

”Forgive me for not coming to see you. The whole thing is extremely obscure; and, if I were with you, I should not have the detachment of mind which is needed to think the case over.”

It was then half-past ten. Renine went for a walk into the country, with his hands clasped behind his back and without vouchsafing a glance at the exquisite spectacle of the white meadows. He came back for lunch, still absorbed in his thoughts and indifferent to the talk of the customers of the inn, who on all sides were discussing recent events.

He went up to his room and had been asleep some time when he was awakened by a tapping at the door. He got up and opened it:

”Is it you?... Is it you?” he whispered.

Hortense and he stood gazing at each other for some seconds in silence, holding each other's hands, as though nothing, no irrelevant thought and no utterance, must be allowed to interfere with the joy of their meeting. Then he asked:

”Was I right in coming?”

”Yes,” she said, gently, ”I expected you.”

”Perhaps it would have been better if you had sent for me sooner, instead of waiting.... Events did not wait, you see, and I don't quite know what's to become of Jerome Vignal and Natalie de Gorne.”

”What, haven't you heard?” she said, quickly. ”They've been arrested. They were going to travel by the express.”

”Arrested? No.” Renine objected. ”People are not arrested like that. They have to be questioned first.”

”That's what's being done now. The authorities are making a search.”