She lifted her hands despairingly and was turning away, when a further question occurred to her. “On your honour, monsieur, you have no other reason for this watching than what you have said?”
“That is a question which I would rather that you did not put to me.”
“But we trust you so,” she cried reproachfully.
He smiled again. “Then do as I have suggested.”
“Oh, what a mystery is all this;” she exclaimed, and left him.
“One word more, mademoiselle,” he said, following her a couple of paces. “We are soldiers and accustomed to long watches and little sleep. One of us will be on the watch out here in the corridor for the night.”
She made no reply; and Gerard, going back to Pascal, told him what he proposed: that they two should watch in turns through the night.
“I hope that rat will come stealing back,” said Pascal. “If I don’t pinch his throat for him, may my fingers forget the feel of a man’s wizen;” and he agreed readily to take the first spell.
The rat did come back, more than once; but so cunningly and softly now, so warily and so keen of scent for the watchers, that neither Gerard nor Pascal knew of his coming; and in the morning both agreed that they had kept their vigil to no purpose. Could they have heard the report which Dauban gave to his master, however, they would have known otherwise.
De Proballe was ill at ease, indeed. He did not like the attitude which Gerard had adopted. He had looked for a pliant tool, afraid of his life; and he found instead, a man who showed independence and firmness, who had a will of his own, and who both said and did things that made against his plans.