The two sentries appeared and descended the stairs. We emerged upon the roof.
“You have my sympathy, comrades,” said Perrault, and closed the door.
There was not a moment to lose. I ran to the nearest chimney, clambered to the top and felt inside. I found the prisoner’s head in an instant. Catching him by the shoulders, I dragged him to the top and lowered him to Richelieu, who awaited him below. The other prisoner was soon standing beside him.
“Messieurs,” I said to them, “we have returned, as you see, and I wish you to listen to me very carefully. There remains only one thing for us to do. That is to silence you.” I saw them shudder. “It is necessary only to decide how you are to be silenced. In short, you must either engage to keep silence or we shall be obliged to silence you once and for all. Which do you prefer, a hundred pistoles each or a blow of the poniard and a drop over the parapet?” I loosened their gags as I spoke.
“Monsieur,” said one of them, “a fool could choose. I will take the pistoles, will not you, Bastien?”
“I, also,” answered his comrade, readily, “provided no one else knows of your escape, messieurs?”
“No one knows of it. Every one thought we were you. At the end of the watch you will be relieved; you will go down. To-morrow you will have a holiday in which to spend your pistoles. If any one interrogates you, swear that no one passed this way. You will be quite safe.”
“But you, messieurs?” asked Bastien.
“We return to our cells, and everything is as it was before. Do you agree?”
“We agree,” they cried with one voice, though by the way they looked at us it was plain they thought us fools to have returned.