"What object has he?" inquired Courtin. "If he wanted to deliver you up nothing could have been easier than to bring the gendarmes here."
Michel shook his head.
"No,--do you say no?"
"I say it is not I whom he is after, Courtin; it is not on my account he watched us yesterday."
"Why so?"
"Because the price on my head would not pay him for his treachery."
"But whom else can he be spying on?" said the farmer, calling up all the vacant simplicity he was capable of imprinting on his face and accent.
"A Vendéan leader whom I was anxious to save while making my own escape," replied Michel, beginning to perceive whither Courtin's questions were leading him,--though he was not sorry to admit the latter into half his secret in order to use him when occasion came.
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed Courtin; "and you think he has discovered the hiding-place of the Vendéan leader? That would be a misfortune, Monsieur Michel."
"No; he only got to the outworks, as it were; but I am afraid, now that he is once on the scent, he may have better luck this time."