“How came you to bring this?” asks Guy, his lips trembling a little and his face growing pale. [[149]]
“He told me—”
“He!—who?”
“Monsieur Oliver; he told me to get a pigeon,” says the boy, “and I went to the coop and somehow—for he cried to me to hurry—I let the door open and they all got out and flew away. Then I went to him and told him.”
“And he?”
“I think he must be sick. He screamed ‘Mon Dieu! what have you done?’ Then he said to me, ‘You’ve let the pigeons go, you must take a letter—Misericorde! my friend!’ Then he gave me money to get a horse and told me to ride as fast as I could and to get here last night in time to get through the town before the gates closed and give this to Captain Andrea Blanco on the ship Esperanza. And then to do what he told me.”
“Then why were you not here last night?” demands Guy, in awful tones.
“The stableman cheated me in the horse, curse him—the beast was lame and I didn’t get to the Emperor’s Gate until just as it was closing, so I had to stay at home all night, but I brought it here as soon as the gates were open. But you’re not Captain Andrea Blanco, you’re Captain Guido Amati,” adds Achille, who has kept curious eyes on Guy ever since he came into the cabin.
“Both.”
“That’s funny.”