"This begins not to be amusing," remarked Aymar after a few minutes; and indeed there was no amusement in his voice. "Dieu! How tired I am!"
He had sat down on a log that lay, in the long wet grass, close to a broken-down gate which had once closed the entrance to a little lane, and against this gate he now leant back. Overhead the chestnut leaves were gently dripping.
"I'll go along the road a little and see if I can meet the man," said Laurent.
In a few moments he came striding back, rather angry.
"Aymar, where are you? A confoundedly annoying thing has happened. I met Royer in the road there, and he says he has changed his mind. It is too risky, he thinks, to take us into his house in the village, but he says that just along the coast to our left there is a smugglers' cave, the 'Panier', which we can easily reach, and which is quite habitable. He will show us the way, and he is bringing some provisions with him. He will be here himself in a minute or two."
Aymar on his log in the dusk was silent for a couple of seconds, then he said, "If this is a joke, it is a damnably bad one."
"It is not a joke. I am far too much annoyed to jest. But of course we cannot force the man to take us in."
"Well, I," declared L'Oiseleur, "am not going to set out at this time of night for a cave along the coast."
"But you cannot spend the night here by the side of the road!" cried Laurent.
"Why not?" enquired his friend.