"Is not this the place?" she asked.
Looking closer, from shrub to open, I recognised the ground of that night attack in the woods.
"Hortense, then it was you that I saw at the fire with the others?"
She nodded assent. She had not uttered one word to explain how she came to that wild land; nor had I asked.
"It was you who pleaded for my life in the cave below my feet?"
"I did not know you had heard! I only sent Le Borgne to bring you back!"
"I hid as he passed."
"But I sent a message to the fort——"
"Not to be bitten by the same dog twice—I thought that meant to keep away?"
"What?" asked Hortense, passing her hand over her eyes. "Was that the message he gave you? Then monsieur had bribed him! I sent for you to come to us. Oh, that is the reason you never came——"