"On my word of honor."
"Well, as you are now sensible, we'll give you the means of getting along without skinning your feet among the briers or gluing them to this cursed sticky soil, which adds at least seven pound weight to our boots."
These words were soon explained to Michel, for after crossing the highway behind Trigaud, and going a hundred yards into the woods that bordered the road he heard the whinnying of a horse.
"My horse!" he exclaimed, not concealing his surprise.
"Did you think we had stolen it?" asked Courte-Joie.
"Why didn't you stay at the place where I gave it to you?"
"Confound it!" replied Aubin. "I'll tell you: we noticed a lot of men walking round us and watching us with an interest that was too deep not to be disquieting; and as inquisitive folk are not to my taste, and time went by and you didn't return, we thought we had better take your beast to Banl[oe]uvre, where we supposed you had gone, if not arrested; and it was only as we went along we discovered that if not actually arrested you soon would be."
"Soon would be?"
"Yes, and so you were."
"Were you near me when the gendarmes arrested me?"