“Give us the name he is known by—that will be sufficient,” said Pascal.
“He is called——” began the man.
Before he could speak the name there came a flash and a report from behind a clump of bushes not more than twenty feet away, and the man fell headlong to the ground, dead!
The three men advanced boldly towards the place from which the shot had come. They were met by a fusilade, the bullets, fortunately, perhaps intentionally, going over their heads.
“It is too hot for us here,” said Pascal. “Let us go back to the house at once, where your request, my dear Count, shall be complied with.”
Count Napier Mont d’Oro was the only one who knew that Victor Duquesne and Vandemar Della Coscia were one and the same person.
“My dear young lady,” said the Count to himself, “what a sweet revenge I shall have when I disclose my secret to your guests.”
CHAPTER XXII.
TREACHERY.
Thomas Glynne and Jack De Vinne found life in the bandits’ camp very irksome. They were not exposed to physical danger, for they were not called upon to accompany any of the bands which left camp on what they supposed to be predatory excursions.
Neither had forgotten the object of his visit to Corsica. Each wished to continue the search for Bertha Renville and be the first one to meet her; but they knew they were closely watched, and that any attempt to leave camp without Cromillian’s consent would be resisted by force, and their careers cut short, perhaps, by rifle-bullets. So they were forced, against their wills, to remain “lookers-on in Vienna,” and bide their time. The life they led was as enervating as it would have been in prison. Each asked for something to do to pass away the time, and it was arranged that Jack should keep the camp supplied with fresh water, while Glynne felled trees and cut the firewood.