“Forty-eight minutes may suffice for what he may do if he but gets his hand on us.”
“He will not dare to use violence to me,” said Gerard. “His head would pay for it.”
“But it wouldn’t put either yours or mine back on our shoulders, my lord, if he’d struck them off first. And as for daring—what won’t a madman dare? And a madman he is. My advice is to keep out of his clutches so long as we can.”
“And what we have to consider is the best way of doing it. Tell me, Babillon, what chance have we of reaching Malincourt undiscovered, and what is the distance?”
“Twenty minutes would take us there, could we go direct, monsieur; but the road is a very open one, and I——” he finished the sentence with a doubting shake of the head.
“Is there no other road?”
“Yes, monsieur, but it trebles the distance; and miladi is already overwrought.”
“And the devil of it is that we don’t know what we should find when we get there,” said Dubois. “Mademoiselle can’t tramp the city all night. I have a thought. Let me go and find out what is passing there, and smell out the chances of safety. Could the rest lie safe here, think you?” he asked Babillon.
“For the night, I should think, yes,” was the reply. “But I can best go. I could get into the house and carry any message.”
“You can guide me,” said Dubois, “and get me a workman’s blouse. It is best so,” he added to Gerard. “If Pascal is there holding the house, I can gauge the chances of our getting in and arrange for him to send out to meet us. What say you?”