I could do nothing but obey—no other path lay open. With sinking heart I passed my arm again about the waist of my companion, who had seemingly lapsed into a sort of stupor, and followed Pasdeloup who was awaiting us impatiently at a little distance.
“This way,” he said; and turned from the bed of the torrent up the steep hillside. I paused for one backward glance at the friend I had abandoned. He was standing erect, pistols in hand. The tears blinded me, and I hastened on.
In a moment Pasdeloup stopped.
“Do you see that ledge of rock up yonder overgrown with vines?” he asked. “Put the vines aside and you will find behind them a very comfortable cavern. Enter it and you are safe.”
“And you?” I asked, seeing that he turned away.
“I? Oh, I return to my master;” and he was off in an instant.
I gazed after him, touched anew by that dog-like devotion, until he disappeared from sight down the bed of the torrent. In the distance I heard a rattle of muskets. They were attacking him, then; and I pictured to myself that gallant figure defying them, his eyes gleaming, a smile upon his lips. Ah, if I were only there beside him!
Then suddenly I became conscious of a dead weight on my arm, and glanced down to see that Charlotte was lying there unconscious.
CHAPTER XVII.
I TAKE A VOW.
For an instant I was so shaken by that dead weight on my arm, by that white drawn face turned blindly up to mine, that my heart stopped in my bosom; for I recalled that other white face and that other limp form I had seen but a moment since. Then I shook the horror off.