Page:Stanley Weyman--Count Hannibal.djvu/175

Rh “But Count Hannibal’s men?” he asked eagerly.

“They are eating in the lodge by the door.”

“Ha! And they cannot see the other room from there?”

Javette nodded. Her tale told, she seemed to be unable to add a word. Mademoiselle, who knew her for a craven, wondered that she had found courage either to note what she had or to bring the news. But as Providence had been so good to them as to put it into this woman’s head to act as she had, it behoved them to use the opportunity—the last, the very last opportunity they might have.

She turned to Tignonville. “Oh, go!” she cried feverishly. “Go, I beg! Go now, Monsieur! The greatest kindness you can do me is to place yourself as quickly as possible beyond his reach.” A faint colour, the flush of hope, had returned to her cheeks. Her eyes glittered.

“Right, Mademoiselle!” he cried, obedient for once, “I go! And do you be of good courage.”

He held her hand: an instant, then, moving to the door, he opened it and listened. They all pressed behind him to hear. A murmur of voices, low and distant, mounted the staircase and bore out the girl’s tale; apart from this the house was silent. Tignonville cast a last look at Mademoiselle, and, with a gesture of farewell, glided a-tiptoe to the stairs and began to descend, his face hidden in his cowl. They watched him reach the angle of the staircase, they watched him vanish beyond it; and still they listened, looking at one another when a board creaked or the voices below were hushed for a moment.