"It came from our scout," said the Vendéan leader. "He asks in his fashion if the road is clear. Listen, and you will hear the answer."
He stopped his horse and signed to Monsieur Marc to do the same. Almost immediately a second cry was heard coming from a much greater distance. It seemed the echo of the first, so exactly alike were the two sounds.
"We can safely go on; the road is clear," said the Vendéan leader.
"Then we are preceded by a scout?"
"Preceded and followed. We have a man two hundred steps before us and two hundred steps behind us."
"But who are they who answer the scouts?"
"Peasants, whose cottages are along the road. Look attentively at these cottages as you pass them, and you will see a small skylight open and the head of a man come up and remain there motionless, as if made of stone, until we are out of sight. If we were soldiers of some neighboring cantonment the man who looked at us would instantly leave his house by the back-door, and if there were any meeting or assemblage of any kind in the neighborhood warning would be given in time of the approach of the troops." Here the leader interrupted himself. "Listen!" he said.
The two riders stopped.
"This time," said the traveller, "I only heard one cry, I think,--that of our scout."
"You are right; no cry has answered his."