"I don't like their looks, and my wife's a timorous creature. Then there's the children--you've seen my little ones, I think, sir?"
"Yes, I have seen them. Surely those men would do them no harm!"
"Perhaps not, sir; but a man, loving those near to him, thinks of the possibilities of things. I've got a bit of money in the house, to pay my rent that's due to-morrow, and one or two other accounts. They may have got scent of it."
"Do you think they have come to Nerac on a robbing expedition?"
"There's no telling. Roguery has a plain face, and the signs are in theirs, or my name's not what it is. When they said they were going further on I asked them where, and they said it was no business of mine. They gave me the same answer when I asked them where they came from. They're up to no good, that's certain, and the sooner they're out of the village the better for all of us."
The more the worthy landlord talked the more settled became his instinctive conviction that the strangers were rogues.
"If robbery is their errand," I said thoughtfully, "there are houses in Nerac which would yield them a better harvest than yours."
"Of course there is," was his response. "Doctor Louis's, for one. He has generally some money about him, and his silver plate would be a prize. Are you going back there to-night, sir?"
"No; I am on my road to my own house, and I came out of the way a little for the sake of the walk."
"That's my profit, sir," said the landlord cheerfully. "I would offer to keep you company if it were not that I don't like to leave my place."